Re: Crick's answer to lester's conundrum

On 25 Apr 2006 10:42:31 -0700, "feedbackdroids"
<feedbackdroids@xxxxxxxxx> in comp.ai.philosophy wrote:


http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/crick04/crick04_index.html

================

He had very little patience with orthodox philosophers. He felt they
became too prematurely trapped in matters of terminology. I am reminded
of a seminar on consciousness he gave at the Salk in the eighties. A
philosopher-whose name politeness forbids me from mentioning-raised
his hand and said "But Dr Crick ... you are attempting to solve the
so-called problem of consciousness yet you haven't even bothered to
define it...can you clearly define what you are talking about?" Crick's
reply: "My dear chap, there was never a time in the pre-DNA era when a
lot of us biologists sat around the table and said 'Let us first
clearly define life before we explore it'. We just went out there,
forged ahead and found out what it was. It's no doubt good to have a
rough idea of what one is talking about but matters of terminology are
best left to philosophers who spend most of their time on such things.
Indeed clear definitions often emerge from empirical research. We now
no longer quibble over questions like is a virus really alive".
Semantic hygiene, Crick felt, was largely a waste of time.

===============

Yes well the truly unfortunate thing here is that Dan casts Lester as
an orthodox philosopher and his alter ego as the voice of wisdom when
in point of fact it is Dan who is the orthodox philosopher and Lester
the voice of wisdom because Dan has no idea what he's talking about
but insists on talking about it nonetheless whereas Lester has an
exact idea what he's talking about and what Dan's talking about and
what Glen is talking about and what Michael is talking about etc. etc.
and Dan resents the fact his pose as pragmatic engineer is dismissed
with contempt despite his failure to produce anything like success in
AI comparable to what his alter ego produced in DNA structural
analysis even without the unacknowledged assistance of one who was
somewhat more expert in xray diffraction analysis of organic molecules
than Watson and Crick and without whose assistance neither they nor
Dan like philosophers before them ever reach any conclusion yet still
expect others to acknowledge and honor their opinions on subjects like
philosophy and science which they know nothing about but others do.

~v~~

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Cricks answer to lesters conundrum
    ... He had very little patience with orthodox philosophers. ... became too prematurely trapped in matters of terminology. ... Indeed clear definitions often emerge from empirical research. ... Science is a collaboration. ...
    (comp.ai.philosophy)
  • Cricks answer to lesters conundrum
    ... He had very little patience with orthodox philosophers. ... became too prematurely trapped in matters of terminology. ... of a seminar on consciousness he gave at the Salk in the eighties. ... Semantic hygiene, Crick felt, was largely a waste of time. ...
    (comp.ai.philosophy)
  • Re: Cricks answer to lesters conundrum
    ... He had very little patience with orthodox philosophers. ... became too prematurely trapped in matters of terminology. ... Indeed clear definitions often emerge from empirical research. ... Science works because people have journals/books/etc to publish their ...
    (comp.ai.philosophy)