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From: pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor)
Subject: Re: Chomsky on Consciousness and Dennett
Message-ID: <DA2MLL.Cxn@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca>
Organization: UTCC Public Access
References: <3relmg$o3q@usenet.rpi.edu>
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 1995 17:44:08 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang:40034 sci.psychology:43069 comp.ai.philosophy:28783

In article <3relmg$o3q@usenet.rpi.edu>,
Michael Andrew Turton <turtom@goya.its.rpi.edu> wrote:
................
>	The claim being made by some this thread, as I understand it, is that
>understanding is something developed by humans through the accumulation of
>more and more evidence from the environment, both internal and external.  I

I can't speak for others, but this is not the point of the claim I am making.
There no reason for instance, that the way we interpret (and react to) behavior
of others could not be influenced by mechanisms built in by evolution. What
I am claiming is that "understanding" is a term describing a set of behaviors,
perhaps potential ones. In other words, if I say that I understand someone, I
mean (perhaps subconsciously) that I expect him/her to behave in such and such
way in such and such circumstances. This expectations come from modeling the
my own behavior given a particular situation, information etc. If the person
laughs where I could expect him/her to cry (for instance) then I have to 
conclude that I do not understand him/her.

>am denying that claim and maintaining that understanding of others is built
>into us by evolution as an adaptation for social exchange (though of course
>specific cultural behaviors surrounding understanding are learned).
>
This expectation that others will behave the way we would in the same situation
may be evolutionarily built in. This may explain why a child would expect a 
tomato to be upset by being rejected. Feeling guilty about hurting the poor
tomato's feeling may also be a result of evolution. James Wilson makes a
convincing argument about it in his book "The Moral Sense".

>Mike Turton 
>turtom@rpi.edu
>
Andrzej
-- 
Andrzej Pindor                        The foolish reject what they see and 
University of Toronto                 not what they think; the wise reject
Instructional and Research Computing  what they think and not what they see.
pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca                           Huang Po
