Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA29594 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 11 Nov 2000 13:57:51 GMT Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 13:46:17 +0000 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Tests show a human side to chimps Message-ID: <20001111134617.A1380@reborntechnology.co.uk> References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745AF6@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745AF6@inchna.stir.ac.uk>; from v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk on Fri, Nov 10, 2000 at 09:03:51AM -0000 From: Robin Faichney <robin@reborntechnology.co.uk> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Fri, Nov 10, 2000 at 09:03:51AM -0000, Vincent Campbell wrote:
>
> I should have included the
> point that's been made by many scientists, that the problem is that science
> can't answer 'why' questions, it can only (try and) answer 'how' questions,
> e.g. how did the universe begin is a very different question to why did it
> begin, and of course most scientists don't care about why questions very
> much as a result.
Scientists are people, too. I don't see why they shouldn't have the
same concerns as everyone else. However, I suspect that scientists,
like philosophers, tend to be more analytical than most people, and
therefore realise that some of these questions are inherently meaningless.
I'm surprised you don't share that view. That's not to say whatever
stimulates such questions should be ignored, just that these demands
must be satisfied by some other means. "Why..." can only legitimately
be asked about human actions. If anyone asks it about anything else,
then they will have to clarify their thinking, work out what they really
want to know, what their problem actually is, before any progress is
possible.
> But the evidence for most people continuing to ask why
> questions is all around us, and is inherent in philosophy (there I used it
> again!).
Of course everyone asks "why questions". But I doubt that many ask
them at the high level of abstraction you've been using ("...most of
all we want to know why"). Seems to me a small minority like to think
they're speaking for the majority in this, as in so many other things.
It's certainly only a very small minority of contemporary Western
philosophers who concern themselves with such (IMHO silly) questions.
-- Robin Faichney robin@reborntechnology.co.uk=============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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