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> You say it because through years of evolution This equivocates the sense of "because". When I say "I like ice-cream" I mean that I have an occurrent prefere
by mjburgess 4y ago
> You say it because through years of evolution
This equivocates the sense of "because". When I say "I like ice-cream" I mean that I have an occurrent preference/desire for it. I am capable of desire, and the object of my desire here is "ice-cream".
Why I'm capable of desire has a lot to do with evolution, etc. yes. But that isn't relevant to the meaning of the claim.
> The theory of gravity exists because
No, this is humean nonesense. We are in the world; the world exists; it directly causes us to form beliefs about it. Those beliefs we, in general, arrive at via abduction.
Consider the fact that a child only needs to touch a fireplace once before concluding never to touch it again.
The heat caused an immediate, unambigious, representational state which imparts law-like consistency on the world which governs the child's future behaviour.
We do not live in a statistical inductive nightmare; AI does.
- yunwal 4y ago> Why I'm capable of desire has a lot to do with evolution, etc. yes. But that isn't relevant to the meaning of the claim. If you are going to claim that your expression of desire is fundamentally different from another thing's, you need a reason, not just "because I mean it". > Consider the fact that a child only needs to touch a fireplace once before concluding never to touch it again. You can justify not touching the fireplace on a risk/reward, probabilistic basis. The child receives little reward for attempting to touch the fireplace, and lots of punishment. That alone is enough to dissuade you, or cause you to be more cautious in the future. People who receive actual rewards routinely do painful/dangerous things.