[Wittrs] Re: Nominalism / Neil
- From: kirby urner <kirby.urner@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:38:48 -0700
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 8:29 PM, iro3isdx <xznwrjnk-evca@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> --- In Wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "jrstern" <jrstern@...> wrote:
> The compiled code doesn't even contain "person" anywhere, unless that was
> made an extrn, or you turned on symbolic debugging. However, my comment was
> about the computer as electro-mechanical system, where no symbols are being
> used at all.
So can't we do the same phenomenological approach and say humans don't
have any symbols in the same sense computers don't i.e. there's just a
lot of biological stuff happening.
There's the imagination of course but here the programmer abstracts
what computers are doing in terms of symbols, just as he imagines
using symbols in his own case. Once you let abstraction enter the
picture, it applies to both machine-based computing and biology-based
thinking.
Except that's slightly twisted grammar I just used, given he doesn't
say he "imagines" he's thinking or using symbols, just says he's
thinking (and we're certain he is, don't "believe his testimony" i.e.
it's not part of the grammar to disbelieve such a thing). We also say
"computers process symbols" as a move on the game board -- not a
matter for disbelief really, if you wanna get on with that career in
engineering (best to not "talk like a philosopher" then).
Kirby
> Regards,
> Neil
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