On 7/6/2012 7:26 PM, David Nyman wrote:
On 6 July 2012 22:55, Stephen P. King <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
We have to be very careful about this "assumed from the onset"
stuff! Yes, it is necessary to assume things even for the sake of
discussion of ideas, but to assume that they are de facto
primitive and/or a priori is often a fatal mistake.
Let me assure you, Stephen, that I make no assumptions or assertions
as to primitivity or a priori truth for these notions.
Hi David,
I did not mean to claim that you where making assumptions or
assertions. I was speaking in generalities, thus the use of the word "we".
As I have said, I find them useful and illuminating (as presumably
did Hoyle) in connection with certain conceptual problems of
consciousness, particularly those relating to personal identity and
history.
I agree. Hoyle was on to an important idea, IMHO. I really
appreciate that you have pointed this out.
It is also the case that, in discussing these particular ideas with
others, I've found that their particular explicitness with respect to
factors that are often tacit or even entirely unrecognised has often
been helpful in drawing out veiled aspects of competing viewpoints.
Yes. I recall vividly how much David Bohm discussed tacit
assumptions in his writings. It is more often the case than not that it
is what we jsut assume to be true without question that is the problem
that prevents progress in our thinking.
I tend to agree that a comparison can be drawn with Leibnizian PEH,
which I suppose is rather unavoidable given the way the notion is
formulated. With respect to the substrate or "real system" with which
Hoyle's pigeon holes are assumed to be associated "/h//ypotheses non
fingo"; /the heuristic is more or less neutral on this issue, which
can be construed both as a weakness or a strength, depending on one's
purposes.
Would it be too bold to claim that we now have enough evidence to
propose a hypothesis?
--
Onward!
Stephen
"Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."
~ Francis Bacon
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