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Article 1965 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Existence
Message-ID: <JMC.91Dec8171915@SAIL.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 8 Dec 91 23:19:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: SAIL.JMC.91Dec8171915
References: <1991Dec6.165648.6234@husc3.harvard.edu> <1991Dec6.204854.2218@arizona.edu>
	<JMC.91Dec7230031@SAIL.Stanford.EDU>
	<1991Dec8.160548.6317@husc3.harvard.edu>
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Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
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In-Reply-To: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu's message of 8 Dec 91 21:05:46 GMT

I am grateful for Mihail Zeleny's agreement with most of my posting
and have the following comments on his dissents.

1. He is may be right that circumscribing everything in sight
wouldn't lead to the standard model of real numbers but to
something smaller.  My papers about circumscription didn't
propose a doctrine about what *should* be circumscribed.
Circumscription policies of some domain are part of its
formalization and subject to criticism.  Circumscription
is a tool not a doctrine.  (I also sell doctrines).

2. If the name *intellectics* becomes popular as a replacement
for *artificial intelligence* I won't object.  Some Europeans
are promoting that.  I don't know what definition they are using
and can't imagine it matters much as an influence on science.
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.


