From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!ogicse!milton!petry Mon Dec 16 11:01:57 EST 1991
Article 2126 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: petry@milton.u.washington.edu (David Petry)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Causes and Reasons (was re: Searle and the Chinese Room)
Message-ID: <1991Dec14.234404.21829@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 14 Dec 91 23:44:04 GMT
References: <1991Dec13.044040.20059@psych.toronto.edu> <1991Dec13.064817.13637@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1991Dec14.004745.6550@husc3.harvard.edu>
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 19

In article <1991Dec14.004745.6550@husc3.harvard.edu> zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:

>In short, like most of your colleagues, you are doomed to spend your
>professional life building an elaborate orrery, while the more open-minded
>among us are dedicating our efforts to the development of a theory of gravity.

The theory of gravity consists of a fundamental principle (e.g. the inverse 
square law in the Newtonian theory) together with some elaborate mathematical
machinery necessary to show that observed gravitational phenomena can be
explained on the basis of the fundamental principle.  If Mr. Zeleny's
analogy is accurate, it suggests that he has found some fundamental principle
regarding causation and the mind, and is now developing the elaborate formal
machinery necessary to prove that his fundamental principle is sufficient.

So, my question to Mr. Zeleny is this: Without going into the details of any
elaborate formal machinery, what fundamental principle have you discovered? 


David Petry


