🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <TORKEL.92Nov17201521@bast.sics.se>, torkel@sics.se (Torkel
Franzen) writes:
|> In article <1992Nov17.175227.20588@athena.cs.uga.edu>
mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.
|> edu (Michael Covington) writes:
|> 
|>    >Indeed.  Logical reasoning tells me that if I walk out in front
of a bus,
|>    >I'll get run over.
|> 
|>   How?

Exactly.  Logic is a set of rules of inference, not an epistemological
device. There is a difference between 'intelligence' which is often
spontaneous and sometimes seemingly 'illogical' and logic.

The vast majority of investigation now is empirical and not purely
deductive for the simple reason that pure deductive reasoning isn't
worth shit without
being seasoned by reality.  Remember when Aristotle reasoned that
circles were perfect, that heavier objects fell faster, and the Earth
was the center of the universe.  (I may have my facts wrong about
Aristotle, but you get the point, don't you?)

Do you have any idea how embarassing it is for all of us to have waited
for nearly two centuries before someone was clever enough to actually
drop something and watch it fall?

Logic is best when taken out regularly and thrashed thoroughly with the
ugly stick.  By creating Reality that way it did, Life shows itself to
have a terrific sense of humor, which I appreciate very much.


Paul Collacchi