Russ, I agree that the question of what it means to say a person "acts as of deeply hurt" is not easy to answer. For example, some people would become non-communicative while others would communicate aggressively, so how do I come up with a third-person description of acting as if deeply hurt?. I would have to rely on an elaborate theory that would determine, from a person's history of past behavior and a large sample of current behavior that the person is, for example, depressed. (I'm not certain if current psychological theory is stated that way.)
This suggests a question for Nick Suppose that in analyzing behavior, we found that the rules (or probabilistic rules) governing behavior were greatly simplified if we assumed that the person could be in various states that resembled what we usually think of as psychological states, such as depression, fear, elation, etc. Would this count as evidence for inner states? ---John ________________________________________ From: Russ Abbott [russ.abb...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 10:57 AM To: John Kennison Cc: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group; nickthomp...@earthlink.net; e...@psu.edu Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Nick and dishonest behavior As I wrote to Nick directly, I think Nick is gracious and kind and a man of great integrity. But this doesn't make sense to me: "We don't have to believe in inner minds to say that a person accused of dishonesty behaves as if deeply hurt." What could it possibly mean to say that a person is deeply hurt if there is no such thing as first person experience? And if there is no such thing as being deeply hurt in a first person way, what could it possibly mean to say that someone is behaving as if deeply hurt? This suggests that it is very dangerous to claim that there is no first person experience and that observable behavior is all there is. It would encourage "treating people as objects" because that's exactly the position it takes. An attitude of this sort would seem to discard millennia of progress in our understanding and acceptance of what ethical human-to-human interaction consists of. -- Russ ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
