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From: pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor)
Subject: Re: Reductionist Materialism (was Re: I lie therefore I am?)
Message-ID: <CzH81J.6w8@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca>
Organization: UTCC Public Access
References: <1994Nov14.203936.12341@seas.smu.edu> <CzBuxE.434@spss.com> <CzDLDA.HBF@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca> <CzFvAv.Azq@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 18:44:07 GMT
Lines: 35

In article <CzFvAv.Azq@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>,
Jeff Dalton <jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
>In article <CzDLDA.HBF@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca> pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor) writes:
>>In article <CzBuxE.434@spss.com>, Mark Rosenfelder <markrose@spss.com> wrote:
>>>In article <1994Nov14.203936.12341@seas.smu.edu>,
>>>Kenneth J. Hendrickson <kjh@seas.smu.edu> wrote:
>>>>You beg the question.  You first assume that material stuff is all that
>>>>exists, and then assume (correctly based upon the assumption) that ideas
>>>>must exist in material media.  I will concede to you that for beings
>>>>such as humans, who have both physical and non-physical components, a
>>>>physical medium is necessary for communication of ideas.  However, while
>>>>you use your physical brain for perception, you don't use it for storing
>>>>ideas.  Ideas have ABOUTness.  It is not possible for any arrangement of
>>          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>It may be worth pointing out that this is untrue. ABOUTness is not a property
>>of ideas, it is a property which is assigned to them by brains. This can be
>>easily seen from the fact that the same idea can have different ABOUTness
>>for different people. To stick to an example used some time ago in this 
>>group, for A 'love' may be about having sex with B, and for B it may be about
>>getting flowers (and/or jewelry) from A.
>
>What makes you think A and B have the same idea in this case?
>I'd say they have different ideas, but both are labeled "love".
>
How do you then determine what idea corresponds to a given label and what
its "ABOUTness" is, independent of minds/brains?

Andrzej


-- 
Andrzej Pindor                        The foolish reject what they see and 
University of Toronto                 not what they think; the wise reject
Instructional and Research Computing  what they think and not what they see.
pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca                           Huang Po
