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From: spector@brillig.umd.edu (Lee Spector)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: The Ignorant assumption
Message-ID: <13452@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 8 Sep 88 21:13:00 GMT
References: <1383@garth.UUCP> <2362@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Sender: nobody@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: spector@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Lee Spector)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science,
Lines: 19

In article <2362@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu 
(Greg Lee) writes:
>From article <1383@garth.UUCP>, by smryan@garth.UUCP (Steven Ryan):
>" I get the feeling many people like to think of themselves as rational 
>  creatures. "
>
>If so, that's foolish of them.  I don't think it's foolish to try to
>distinguish the rational from the irrational, and sometimes, for
>certain purposes, to try to be rational.  

Rationality is not an all or nothing phenomenon.  I highly recommend
a book by Christopher Cherniak (a U of MD Philosopher) called
MINIMUM RATIONALITY.  Humans do not, and in fact can not, meet
what Cherniak calls the "ideal rationality condition."  However,
there are levels of rationality between ideal rationality and
no rationality.  Cherniak characterizes various levels and discusses
the possibility of cognitive systems with various capabilities attaining
the given levels.

  - Lee Spector, U. of MD Computer Science Dept.  (spector@brillig.umd.edu)