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From: fostel@eos.ncsu.edu (Gary Fostel)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Emergent Properties
Keywords: chaos, science, prediction
Message-ID: <1990Nov1.204417.7120@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 1 Nov 90 20:44:17 GMT
References: <1990Oct12.214636.7945@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <30@tdatirv.UUCP> <1990Oct19.201604.7280@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <3369@aipna.ed.ac.uk> <1990Oct26.214354.11063@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <3383@aipna.ed.ac.uk> <1990Oct31.001104.22908@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <1990Oct31.102704.18335@cscs.UU
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Reply-To: fostel@eos.ncsu.edu (Gary Fostel)
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I like the quote by Quine (posted for our reading pleasure by Shelly,
at Waterloo.  But the very first line of the quote, (emphasis added),
should be a red flag. Again, Quine, pg xi in "Methods of Logic":
     
   Logic, *like*any*other*science*, has as its business the pursuit of 
   truth.  What are true are certain statements; and the pursuit of 
   truth is the endevour to sort out the true statements from the others,
   which are false....  But scientific activity is not the indiscriminant
   amassing of truths; science is selective and seeks the truths that
   count for the most, either in point of intrinsic interest or as
   instruments for coping with the world. 

One of Quine's premises is clearly that science is broadly defined.  Like
Lakotose, he was a post WWII writer.  I have trouble seeing logic as a science.
For example, where are the experiments that add new assertions
to the collected set that are not logically deducible from the existing set?
My own notion of "science" is inextricably linked to experimentation, and 
there is none in logic.  I'd like to replace Quine's "scientific activity"
by "research activity" in his paragraph and then I'd be quite happy with it.

Interestingly, there is never any emergence in logic.  A new assertion does
not somehow emerge by virtue of some sort of critical mass of assertions. 
At least not in logic.  "Human logic" is probably a different matter.

----GaryFostel----                        Department of Computer Science
                                          North Carolina State University