Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!isi.edu!vaxa.isi.edu!smoliar From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Consciousness Message-ID: <15724@venera.isi.edu> Date: 17 Nov 90 22:16:40 GMT References: <10126@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <1990Oct27.070636.4144@wam.umd.edu> <5891@suned1.Nswses.Navy.MIL> <1990Nov9.180404.8915@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <1990Nov9.202525.11717@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <3489@aipna.ed.ac.uk> Sender: news@isi.edu Reply-To: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute Lines: 33 In article <3489@aipna.ed.ac.uk> cam@aipna.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) writes: >In article <1990Nov9.202525.11717@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> fostel@eos.ncsu.edu (Gary >Fostel) writes: > >> I looked up Kuhn's "definition" of science, wondering if cog. sci, >> AI or related subjects would fit. .... >> In that book he is clearly describing how things are rather than how they >> ought to be. > >This is one of Lakatos' criticisms of Kuhn, which he lampoons as the >"democratic model of science", i.e., it's science if most scientists >think it is. It certainly is an easy target for lampoon, but we ought to appreciate how sticky the situation can become. I am reminded of an analogous remark I included on a recent article on algorithmic composition of music, when I claimed that "we may be able to say little more than that music education is that which entitles one to have his behavior judged as 'musical' after his education is complete." Trying to define science is no easier than trying to define music. Musicians assume patterns of behavior based on those of other musicians (Satie's definition: "Music is what happens at concerts."); so it would not be ludicrous to say that scientists assume patterns of behavior based on those of other scientists. ========================================================================= USPS: Stephen Smoliar 5000 Centinela Avenue #129 Los Angeles, California 90066 Internet: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu "It's only words . . . unless they're true."--David Mamet