Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!aipna!cam From: cam@aipna.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Recursive Searles, or what? Message-ID: <1839@aipna.ed.ac.uk> Date: 15 Jan 90 20:27:45 GMT References: <12679@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <12702@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <1224@oravax.UUCP> <1933@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca> Reply-To: cam@aipna.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) Organization: Dept of AI, Edinburgh University, UK. Lines: 18 In article gilham@csl.sri.com (Fred Gilham) writes: >The consensus seems to be that some ``pattern'' is doing the understanding. .... >The alternatives seem to be that either a pattern has some independent >existence of its own (concrete reality) or a mind is necessary to >perceive it. On the one hand, I say we have dualism; on the other >hand, I say we have the ``hermeneutical hall of mirrors'', where we >project our own thought processes onto something in the outside world. Ok. So how do you explain mathematics, or even humble numbers, without recourse to dualism or the hermeneutic hall of mirrors? -- Chris Malcolm cam@uk.ac.ed.aipna 031 667 1011 x2550 Department of Artificial Intelligence, Edinburgh University 5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK