On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 05:54:03PM +1100, Bruce Kellett wrote: > On 26/10/2015 5:30 pm, Russell Standish wrote: > >On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 05:08:21PM +1100, Bruce Kellett wrote: > >>On 26/10/2015 5:01 pm, Russell Standish wrote: > >>>On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 03:40:45PM +1100, Bruce Kellett wrote: > >>>>I think Carroll's Paradox (or 'What the Tortoise Said to Achilles') > >>>>effectively undermines computationalism, or any argument that > >>>>arithmetic is prior to physics. > >>>> > >>>>See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Tortoise_Said_to_Achilles > >>>> > >>>>In order to escape the paradox, you have to resort to a formalist > >>>>approach, and that renders the formalism devoid of semantic content. > >>>> > >>>I don't see why that undermines computationalism. Could you please expand? > >>Modus ponens is only a formal manipulation of symbols, with no > >>semantic content. > >> > >Are you trying to say that modus ponens is not valid of reality, hence > >computionalism is false (but that's employing modus ponens, so you've > >tied yourself up in a knot)? > > > >Or, are you trying to say that computationalism has no semantic > >content because it is formal? That argument has already been run by > >someone on this list - the trouble is the only semantics required are > >internal to the system. > > In which case, the 'semantics' have no bearing on our everyday > experience. One can act on the basis of the weight of evidence > without believing that modus ponens is truth-preserving. >
Assuming computationalism, our everyday experience _is_ internal to the system. That doesn't make it any less meaningful. Cheers -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
