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Article 1535 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rc@depsych.Gwinnett.COM (Richard Carlson)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Is dialectical thought an "informal logic"?
Message-ID: <LV0uBB1w164w@depsych.Gwinnett.COM>
Date: 23 Nov 91 13:26:56 GMT
References: <rreiner.690823427@yorku.ca>
Lines: 40

rreiner@nexus.yorku.ca (Richard Reiner) writes:

> rc@depsych.Gwinnett.COM (Richard Carlson) writes:
> 
> >I suspect that one reason for ignoring the dialectic is precisely
> >because it cannot be formalized.
> 
> This is a preposterously strong claim.  You are saying that there is
> something -- "dialectical reasoning" -- which ordinary, finite, human
> beings are capable of, and yet which it is NOT POSSIBLE to model
> symbolically.  That is, it cannot be modelled symbolically NO MATTER
> HOW LARGE AND POWERFUL A FORMAL SYSTEM ONE IS ALLOWED.
> 
> We have heard this sort of thing before, from Hubert Dreyfus and his
> ilk and from others, and we have learned that the arguments backing up
> such claims evaporate when a serious attempt is made to state them
> clearly.
> 
> Would you care to state yours clearly?

What do you mean by "formalize"? ;^)

Note that that is what my "algorithm" specifies as the first move
in a counterdiscourse.  (Is that itself the beginnings of a
"formalization"?)

Actually that really is the key term here.  If you'll accept a
Virtual Reality as a formalization, then dialectical reasoning can
be formalized.  (Of course it would have to be a VR that
encompassed some kind of narrative reality as well as physical
reality because the narrative reality would be necessary to
predict the "moves" of the interlocutors.)  Dialectical thought
seems to require the entire context in which the statement to be
answered occurs.

--
Richard Carlson        |    rc@depsych.gwinnett.COM
Midtown Medical Center |    {rutgers,ogicse,gatech}!emory!gwinnett!depsych!rc
Atlanta, Georgia       |
(404) 881-6877         |


