990113 1026 - Opinion poll B XVI Results after 1 day

Go to: Next / Index

Von: Marco Bettoni <m.bettoni@fhbb.ch>
An: kant-l@bucknell.edu <kant-l@bucknell.edu>
Cc: Joachim Schütz <schuetz@geo.umnw.ethz.ch>; Rolf Todesco <todesco@compuserve.com>; Robert Ottiger <ottiger@swissonline.ch>
Betreff: Re: OPINION POLL B XVI: RESULTS
Datum: Mittwoch, 13. Januar 1999 10:26

Ed Severinghaus wrote:

>May one ask what this fundamental task is, whether only in your opinion or
in
>some alleged majority/minority views these days? Then perhaps how it is
>addressed will become clear to more readers, including me.

In a famous letter to his friend Markus Herz (Feb. 1772) Kant wrote that he
was planning to publish a work in which he wanted to answer the question
"auf welchem Grunde beruhet die Beziehung desjenigen, was man in uns
Vorstellung nennt, auf den Gegenstand" (on which ground is founded the
relation between what we call 'Vorstellung' in us and the object).

Fifteen years later, in the Critique of pure reason, B XVI, Kant presents
the answer to that question as the central hypothesis of his work.

To answer that Kantian question, this is the FUNDAMENTAL TASK. Kant has
already solved it. But after him the desert.

I think that the FUNDAMENTAL TASK of any cognitive science and philosophy of
science should be:
1) to accept the question about the relation between knowledge and reality
2) once the question is accepted, to explicitly reflect upon the relation
between knowledge and reality.
This means reflecting upon the relation between "Vorstellung" and
"Gegenstand", between model and original (referent), between observer and
things independent from the observer.

Typical questions in this task could be ( Ref. Humberto Maturana,
"Explanations and Reality", Talk in Heidelberg, October 18, 1992):

1. "How comes that I can do whatever I can do ?"

2. "How comes that I can say that thing is there, independent of me ?"

3. "What validates our explanations ?"

4. "Am I able to make reference to something that exists independent from
me, that validates eventually what I say ?"

5. "What gives validity to what I am saying ?"

6. "Is what I say validated through something independent from me ?"

7. "Are the explanations that I propose ultimately validated by the
thingness of that thing, there, independent from me ?"

8. "Am I aware that I have no way of making reference to anything
independent from me to validate my explaining ?"

9. "How do I know ?"

10. "Are my statements demands for obedience ?"

11. "Are my statements invitations to participate in something ?"

12. "Is my explaining validated through my coherences of experience ?"

13. "Do I own the truth ?"

Marco C. Bettoni
Assistant Professor for Artificial Intelligence

# BASEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
# FACHHOCHSCHULE BEIDER BASEL
# CIM-Zentrum Muttenz
# St. Jakobs-Strasse 84
# CH - 4132 Muttenz
# Tel: +41 61 4674 238
# Fax: +41 61 4674 461
# Email: m.bettoni@fhbb.ch
# Web: http://www.fhbb.ch/weknow/marco/krinai.htm
# "If you own the truth, you cannot reflect upon it" (H. Maturana)