Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!rapaport
From: rapaport@sunybcs.uucp (William J. Rapaport)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Free Will and Self-Reference
Message-ID: <10977@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: 6 May 88 12:23:46 GMT
References: <28437@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Sender: nobody@sunybcs.UUCP
Reply-To: rapaport@sunybcs.UUCP (William J. Rapaport)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
Lines: 47
Keywords: philosophy

In article <28437@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> dvm@yale.UUCP (Drew Mcdermott) writes:
>
>Suppose we have a robot that models the world temporally, and uses
>its model to predict what will happen... Now suppose it is in a
>situation that includes various objects, including an object it calls R,
>which it knows denotes itself.
>The robot could apply various devices for making causal prediction, but they
>will all come up against the fact that some of the causal antecedents of R's
>behavior *are situated in the very causal analysis box* that is trying to
>analyze them.  The robot might believe that R is a robot, and hence that
>a good way to predict R's behavior is to simulate it on a faster CPU, but
>this strategy will be in vain, because this particular robot is itself.
>...
>Hence any system that is sophisticated enough to model situations that its own
>physical realization takes part in must flag the symbol describing that
>realization as a singularity with respect to causality.

Followers of this debate should, at this point, familiarize themselves
with the literature on "essential indexicals" and "quasi-indexicality",
philosophical analyses designed for precisely such issues about
self-reference.  Here are some pertinent references, each with pointers to
the literature:

Castaneda, Hector-Neri (1966), " `He':  A Study in the Logic of
Self-Consciousness," Ratio 8:  130-157.

Castaneda, Hector-Neri (1967), "On the Logic of Self-Knowledge,"
Nous 1:  9-21.

Castaneda, Hector-Neri (1967), "Indicators and Quasi-Indicators,"
American Philosophical Quarterly 4:  85-100.

Castaneda, Hector-Neri (1968), "On the Logic of Attributions of
Self-Knowledge to Others," Journal of Philosophy 64:  439-456.

Perry, John (1979), "The Problem of the Essential Indexical," Nous 13:
3-21.

Rapaport, William J. (1986), "Logical Foundations for Belief Representation,"
Cognitive Science 10:  371-422. 
					William J. Rapaport
					Assistant Professor

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