RE: virus: Re: Social Metaphysics
Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Mon, 29 Sep 1997 20:49:33 +0100
> From: David McFadzean[SMTP:david@lucifer.com]
>
> >> I'm also looking for adjective to describe behavior that it the
> same you
> >> would observe if the behaver is rational agent with reasonable
> goals. How
> >> the agent actually generates the behavior is irrelevant to this
> concept.
> >> Again, I'm taking suggestions.
> >
> >"reasonable"?
>
> Yes, but I got some objections when I suggested that instincts can be
> reasonable.
> I got even more flak for using "rational" even though the dictionary
> definition
> "in accordance with the principles of logic or reason" sounds right to
> me.
>
This seems like it should already have been said by
someone, but in case it has not: I think that for most
people, instincts are not rational because, though
the result may well be in accord with these principles,
the way in which that result is reached is not. Except,
of course, in the trivial sense that objective reality
accords with logic -- that is, instincts in no way rely
*explicitly* on the principles, as rational thinking, for
instance, does. And that's what "rational" is usually
taken to mean.
Robin