RE: virus: Belief and Knowledge (was: The truth about faith)
Gifford, Nate F (giffon@SDCPOS3B.DAYTONOH.ncr.com)
Fri, 5 Sep 1997 18:03:40 -0400
Brodie:
>>To get around this, I invite you to believe for the next week that
>>instinct has nothing to do with reason, that it is chaotic behavior,
>>that "reason" is just a label we put on things and not a real thing.
McFadzen:
>You seem to know enough about complexity theory to realize that
>chaotic is not the opposite of reasonable. In fact chaotic behavior
>can be generated by a deterministic algorithm. Of course "reason" is
>a label we put on things, just like any other name. I don't see how
>that in any way makes animal's instincts unreasonable.
Imagine Lady Macbeth gets a job as a mid-wife after she regains most of her
sanity. <Or did she die? I'm not sure .... > Imagine that her compulsive
hand washing behavior is still exhibited. Wouldn't she be a damn effective
midwife in the late medieval period? Imagine she apprenticed a bunch of
midwives who exactly emulated her behavior including the hand washing. It
is conceivable that an entire aseptic child birth ritual could evolve in
this midwives guild ... but they still wouldn't be acting
reasonably....would they?