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>From: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Wisdom and Desert (was re: Searle's response to silicon brain)
Message-ID: <1991Dec23.010943.6878@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 23 Dec 91 06:09:41 GMT
References: <1991Dec19.141418.1132@linus.mitre.org> <349@tdatirv.UUCP> <1991Dec21.161228.16497@news.media.mit.edu>
Organization: Dept. of Math, Harvard Univ.
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In article <1991Dec21.161228.16497@news.media.mit.edu> 
minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:

>Oh, I had lunch with van Quine a couple of months ago, so I asked him
>what he thought about intentionality, expecting to receive some
>wisdom.  He simply replied, "There's no such thing."  I was
>disappointed at the time, but later realized that I had received more
>wisdom than I deserved.

Given his behaviorist preferences (see "Word and Object", p.264), asking Mr
Q for wisdom on the subject of intentionality is just like asking Jack the
Ripper to share his secret seduction technique.  Personally, I'd ask
Casanova.  Or Searle.

Incidentally, given his dismal record in the debates with Church over the
past 48 years (check out the successive versions of his "Reference and
Modality" and Church's reviews thereof), I wouldn't ask Quine for any
wisdom about intensionality, either.

There, have I given you all the wisdom you deserve?

`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'
: Qu'est-ce qui est bien?  Qu'est-ce qui est laid?         Harvard   :
: Qu'est-ce qui est grand, fort, faible...                 doesn't   :
: Connais pas! Connais pas!                                 think    :
:                                                             so     :
: Mikhail Zeleny                                                     :
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