Jesse Mazer wrote:
> Brent Meeker wrote:
>
>
>>
>>1Z wrote:
>>
>>>Brent Meeker wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>1Z wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Brent Meeker wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>You misunderstand "population models". It's not a question of what
>>
>>members of a species think or
>>
>>>>>>vote for; it's a matter of whether their logic will lead to their
>>
>>survival in the evolutionary
>>
>>>>>>biological sense. So the majority can be wrong.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Cooper is making valid comments about *something*, but it isn't logic.
>>>>>Logic is what tells us the majority can be wrong
>>>>
>>>>Cooper is not talking about logic in the formal sense; he's talking
>>
>>about reasoning, making
>>
>>>>decisions, acting. This can be "wrong" in the sense that there is a
>>
>>better (in terms of survival)
>>
>>>>way of reasoning.
>>>
>>>
>>>If you want to judge what is better in terms of survival,
>>>you need to use logic.
>>
>>No, you just need to see who survives. Experiment trumps theory.
>>
>>Brent Meeker
>
>
> Presumably Cooper used theory to show why certain types of reasoning are
> more likely to aid survival, no? Anyway, we still need assumptions about
> logic and math to make sense of statements about basic experimental
> observations like "the individuals with trait X survived more frequently
> than those who lacked it."
>
> Jesse
I don't understand "assumptions about logic and math"? We don't need to make assumptions about them
because they are rules we made up to keep us from reaching self-contradictions when making long
complex inferences. They are rules about propositions and inferences. The propositions may be
about an observation like "a species that used this kind of reasoning survived more frequently than
those who used that kind." I might need logic to make further inferences, but I don't need
assumptions about logic to understand it.
Brent Meeker
Brent Meeker
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Received on Mon Jul 10 2006 - 15:23:52 PDT