Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science

From: Lester Zick (lesterDELzick_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 02/14/05 

Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 20:10:31 GMT

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 10:42:02 -0500, Tony Orlow (aeo6)
<aeo6@cornell.edu> in comp.ai.philosophy wrote:

>robert j. kolker said:
>>
>>
>> > It seems that you've done so prematurely, Bob. If we were talking
>> > biology and binomial nomenclature I would agree. I we're talking
>> > biological mechanics and mechanical definition I would disagree.
>>
>> Biological mechanics? We share 95 percent of our genome with
>> chimpanzees. In other words, the basic DNA makeup of Mr. Chimp is almost
>> the same as Mr. Man.
>>
>> In gross anatomical terms, we match major organ to major organ with Mr.
>> Chimp. Our brains our different, to be sure, which accounts for why we
>> talk and do mathematics and the chimp does not. We our different, but
>> not that different.
>>
>> Bob Kolker
>>
>I'll have to agree with Bob on this one.

This is a good example of an inductive fallacy, Tony. The 95%
commonality of DNA doesn't guarantee it's the right 95% if it only
accounts for the organic similarities Bob indicates and not for the
abstract reasoning that I, at least, use to define homo s. The right
percentage of DNA commonality could be as little as 1% or less and
still produce abstract reasoning capabilities without organic
homologues if it's the right 1%. A figure of 95% just indicates the
likelihood that DNA commonality includes the relevant 1% needed to
mechanize abstract reasoning, whose definitional significance as a
characteristic has to be determined independently. So far it seems
that the 95% commonality doesn't include the relevant 1%.

Regards - Lester

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science
    ... >> Biological mechanics? ... the basic DNA makeup of Mr. Chimp is almost ... likelihood that DNA commonality includes the relevant 1% needed to ...
    (sci.cognitive)
  • Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science
    ... >> Biological mechanics? ... the basic DNA makeup of Mr. Chimp is almost ... likelihood that DNA commonality includes the relevant 1% needed to ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Some more Bull****! Whats the 1.2-5% dna Diff! (Chimp to man)
    ... DNA by only 1.2-5%? ... you count each of the bases in that sequence as one ... "Bacteria" constitute many different kingdoms as diverse as, or more so, ... Why doesn't a human look like a chimp if it's only ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Some evolution questions
    ... relative of man is so far away from man (I believe it's the chimp)? ... The same sequence of any two unrelated humans would be around 0.1% ... Monkey DNA are 10% larger, and 10% longer than humans.They are not ... I was amazed at how slanted it was towards evolution. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Some evolution questions
    ... relative of man is so far away from man (I believe it's the chimp)? ... The same sequence of any two unrelated humans would be around 0.1% ... Monkey DNA are 10% larger, and 10% longer than humans.They are not ... measurements that they made. ...
    (talk.origins)