Subject: | |
From: | |
Date: | Mon Dec 4 14:53:15 2006 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Peter G. Stillmann wrote:
> when a country goes to war, do we still conceptualize it
> as individuals acting, or is that a case when countries
> act?
When an individual goes to war, do we still conceptualize it
as cells acting, or is it a case when individuals act?
Despite an abortive mid-century attraction to behaviorism,
economists remain oddly comfortable implying that
individual action is somehow decoupled from the laws of
the physical universe.
Almost surely someone who never read Freud *and* never
interacted with artificial intelligence *and* was never
chased by a mosquito will now be tempted to object that for
there to be action there must be (not that we could ever
observe it!) a consciousness holding an intention to act.
I hope his/her action will be (unobserved) resistance of
this impulse, despite the identification problem this
creates.
We talk of action when we find it useful.
We find it useful when such talk
helps us anticipate/understand outcomes.
Cheers,
Alan Isaac
|
|
|