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Article 1332 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: map@svl.cdc.com (Mark Peters)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Animal Intelligence vs Human Intelligence
Message-ID: <37995@shamash.cdc.com>
Date: 15 Nov 91 21:38:55 GMT
References: <37713@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov05.084137.29880km <37859@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov14.202756.18746@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com>
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In <1991Nov14.202756.18746@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com> max@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com (Max Webb) writes:

>In article <37859@shamash.cdc.com> map@svl.cdc.com writes:
>>>In article <37802@shamash.cdc.com> map@svl.cdc.com (Mark Peters) writes:
>>...  Sensations and percepts are
>>always automatically formed by the nervous system, while concepts never
>>are - they have to be formed by deliberately focusing the mind on reality
>>in a particular way.

>You appear to be ignoring the active exploratory nature of vision.
>You speak as if the eye was a camera, presenting the brain with
>a finished picture. You also appear to be ignoring the demonstrable
>effect of expectations on perception. (see below).

If you are refering to the fact that the eye is constantly moving, even
when we think we are holding it still, then this illustrates nicely
exactly what I'm saying - I don't have to do anything for this to happen,
i.e., it happens automatically.  The point is, nobody has to teach me
how to see, or how to hear, or how to taste,  I just do it.  I don't need a 
"method" to do these correctly, but I definitely need a method to think
correctly (e.g., logic), and I have to *choose* to learn and follow that
method.

>>...  The sensations that give rise to each percept are put together
>>according to the nature of the entities involved, namely, the nature
>>of the apple, the dog, the rock, and my sensory apparatus - there is
>>no possibility of an error at either the sensory or the perceptual
>>level.

>Demonstrably false. This morning I was searching my room
>for a book, repeatedly missing it out in plain view (I expected
>what was in plain sight to be a somewhat similar, but not all that similar
>book). My expectations repeatedly caused me to perceive the book
>I wanted, as the one I did not want. The data was there,
>but I didn't explore it right. I would consider expectations as
>"volitional" as anything else, wouldn't you?

But this is not an example of a perceptual error.  You said it yourself,
"The data was there, but I didn't explore it right."   It isn't
that your eyes decided to stop accepting light rays from the book, or
that they decided to send your brain info that wasn't in the rays.  It
was your expectations, which you held in the form of concepts, that caused
you to err, in other words, the error was on the conceptual level, not
the perceptual level.

>>In this context, an error would have to be due to my senses
>>acting contrary to their nature, and since they have no power to do
>>this (even when damaged), this is impossible.

>This sounds almost like scholastic philosophy. You
>should spend less time reasoning about perception, and reading up
>on the actual equipment controlling things.

You are right, everything I've said so far was philosophy, not science.
But basic philosophy (metaphysics and epistemology) is logically prior 
to science, i.e., science has to rely (at least implicitly) on basic 
philosophy in order to even get started.  Because of this, no
scientific discovery about the workings of the brain could ever refute
philosophical truths in metaphysics or epistemology - and the relation
between sensations, percepts, and concepts is one such truth.

--
Mark A. Peters                              ****** ======================
Control Data Corporation                    ****** == "What a save!!!" ==
Internet: map@svl.cdc.com                   ****** == "What an idea!!" ==


