Re: virus: Spirited away

Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Sat, 4 Jul 98 09:56:13 -0400


>I think I implied that the
>philosophy created an understanding which detailed
>the structure which might stand for the philosophy:
>You said that the philosophy was so many pretty
>pictures and that the structure should be found...)?

Hmmm- I think I said that whatever structure was 'found' was _merely_ a
pretty picture. While there have been structures found in musical and
dramatic products, Wilson's argument is that mind as a structure can not
be found in this way, and I agree. If we go one more step, and say the
memes are parts of the structure of mind (which I think we all do here)
then, ipso facto, pretty pictures don't hack it.

Now, I'm not saying that some of the fMRI images I've seen ain't been
damn pretty, they are.... But, lo and behold- they're actual empirical
evidence... real images of working brains. Is that not the way to go? And
if you think it ain't, please provide one shred of empirical evidence
gathered over the centuries by philosophy. Wilson's point is that it is
bogus to be holding onto some romantic notion that mind is approachable
by abstract methods.

But neither he nor I present it as useless in other areas. Like I've said
before, it's fun, at the very least.

*****************
Wade T. Smith
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