Thanks for this reminder Jon. Boole's comments are reminiscent of those made by
Alan Turing, in which he explicitly puts aside the "lack of locality in
consciousness" in order to make progress. But let us be clear that I propose no
more than Boole or Turing, that we investigate the laws of signs. Today,
because of the advances in biophysics, we are able to take the investigation of
those laws further, that's all. And we need no longer be shy of investigating
the underlying physics.
With respect,
Steven
--
Dr. Steven Ericsson-Zenith
Institute for Advanced Science & Engineering
http://iase.info
On Mar 6, 2012, at 8:04 AM, Jon Awbrey wrote:
> Steven,
>
> Here's a snippet from Boole that I think well illustrates
> his take on the relation between logic and the psychology
> of the thinking process.
>
> | In proceeding to these inquiries, it will not be necessary
> | to enter into the discussion of that famous question of the
> | schools, whether Language is to be regarded as an essential
> | instrument of reasoning, or whether, on the other hand, it
> | is possible for us to reason without its aid. I suppose this
> | question to be beside the design of the present treatise, for
> | the following reason, viz., that it is the business of Science
> | to investigate laws; and that, whether we regard signs as the
> | representatives of things and of their relations, or as the
> | representatives of the conceptions and operations of the
> | human intellect, in studying the laws of signs, we are
> | in effect studying the manifested laws of reasoning.
> |
> | (Boole, Laws of Thought, p. 24.)
>
> Boole is saying that the business of science, the investigation of laws,
> applies itself to the laws of signs at such a level of abstraction that
> its results are the same no matter whether it finds those laws embodied
> in objects or in intellects. In short, he does not have to choose one or
> the other in order to begin. This simple idea is the essence of the formal
> approach in mathematics, and it is one of the reasons that contemporary
> mathematicians tend to consider structures that are isomorphic. Peirce
> uses this depth of perspective for the same reason. It allows him to
> investigate the forms of triadic sign relations that exist among objects,
> signs, and interpretants without being blocked by the impossible task of
> acquiring knowledge of supposedly unknowable things in themselves, whether
> outward objects or the contents of other minds. Like Aristotle and Boole
> before him, Peirce replaces these impossible problems with the practical
> problem of inquiring into the sign relations that exist among commonly
> accessible objects and publicly accessible signs.
>
> • http://www.mywikibiz.com/User:Jon_Awbrey/PEIRCE#Formal_perspective
> •
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Charles_Sanders_Peirce/Cache#Formal_perspective
>
> Steven Ericsson-Zenith wrote:
> >
> > Thanks Jon.
> >
> > Recall that my goal is ultimately a calculus for biophysics, in addition
> > to a logic constructed upon it. Following your suggested approaches there
> > is no way to bind the characterization of sense with response potentials.
> > So, different goals perhaps.
> >
> > On Boole and Frege, I am using the titles of the books only to highlight
> > the overall concern of the authors, rather than the particular approach
> > of each author. I decided to avoid the psychologistic divide in logic
> > in this short piece. I'll review that decision.
> >
> > Steven
>
> --
>
> academia: http://independent.academia.edu/JonAwbrey
> inquiry list: http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/
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> word press blog 1: http://jonawbrey.wordpress.com/
> word press blog 2: http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/
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