October 13th, 2009

Taking the philosophical trail

On one hand there are the physical sciences, which understand the universe by reducing it to geometry and mathematics. On the other hand are the humanities, the disciplines that serve and investigate the human soul, the mind, consciousness. The dichotomy cuts deep, even into the individual intellect of each of us. Two worlds, two truths. Hence, no truth at all—for the world must indeed be one, and its bifurcation is a powerful illusion we ourselves have created. Jeff Foss

In the Chinese case I have everything that artificial intelligence can put into me by way of a program, and I understand nothing; in the English case I understand everything, and there is so far no reason at all to suppose that my understanding has anything to do with computer programs, that is, with computational operations on purely formally specified elements. John Searle

Reason is not disembodied, as the tradition has largely held, but arises from the nature of our brains, bodies, and bodily experience. This is not just the innocuous and obvious claim that we need a body to reason; rather, it is the striking claim that the very structure of reason itself comes from the details of our embodiment. Lakoff and Johnson

Somewhere in there is my philosophy.

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