Re: A hearing or a reading

From: Malcolm (malcolm_at_55bank.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: 03/14/05 

Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 01:07:39 -0500 (EST)

"Tim Tyler" <tim@tt1lock.org> wrote
>
> FWIW, though I agree with most of Dennett's views, the book left
> me rather nauseated. I think it stands as a good example of why
> philosophy and biology rarely mix well. For example, I don't
> think any biologist would ever have spent so much time rattling
> on about "skyhooks".
>
My own feling is that Dennett is asking the right questions, but doesn't
have the tools to provide answers.
Asking the right question is vitally important in science or philosophy,
maybe even more important than providing an answer. The "skyhook" question
is in fact vital - if reductionism is true, then you may have "emergent
properties", (like the Madelbrot set from a simple sequence of operations on
a complex number), but you cannot posit any sort of organising principle or
homunculus (a little man who sits in the brain looking at the cells of the
visual cortex). Dennett is maybe not expressing himself as cogently as he
might, but to see the issue as nothing but "rattling on" is to risk making
your biology nothing more than glorified plumbing.
On Gould - I think that if your ideas are rather confused, then it is
extremely easy to accuse people of misrepresenting you.

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