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Article 1601 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: john@publications.ccc.monash.edu.au (John Wilkins)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Daniel Dennett
Message-ID: <1991Nov25.013409.16017@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>
Date: 25 Nov 91 01:34:09 GMT
References: <1991Nov16.014015.1074@yarra-glen.aaii.oz.au> <DAVIDMC.91Nov21100802@fsd.cpsc.ucalgary.ca>
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In article <DAVIDMC.91Nov21100802@fsd.cpsc.ucalgary.ca>, davidmc@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (davidmc) writes:
> 
> zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:
>    >I believe that the very notion of "Man a Machine" is anti-humanistic both
>    >in its intrinsic nature, and in its historical development (the guillotine,
>    >labor camps, terrorist state).
> 
> Is a non-anthropocentric theory necessarily anti-humanistic?
> (I don't think so.)
> 
> --
> David McFadzean (davidmc@cpsc.ucalgary.ca)
> Knowledge Sciences Institute
> University of Calgary
> 
> 
Oh yes. The theory that the Earth is not the centre of the universe is
a blow to human dignity, and is therefore false. ;-)

Seriously, this kind of argument is bad enough from fundamentalist
Christians, but to claim that mechanistic philosophy is the cause of
horrors such as this is historically false. It wasn't mechanism that
caused the Romans to crucify tens of thousands, nor Vlad the Impaler
to gain his reputation, and I personally think the Nazis were rather
anti-mechanistic romanticists.

If there is a causal link of this kind, I'd be very interested to
hear of it.

It will not be "if God is dead everything is permitted". Human dignity
is what it is no matter what underpins it. I believe humans have
dignity and rights and .... I just don't believe they need a Platonic
form to justify them.


