Re: Empiry

[twayburn@juno.com (Thomas L Wayburn)]

On Thu, 8 Jan 1998 13:09:45 -0800 Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca> writes:

> It cannot be emphasized too strongly that computer simulation (an
> area in which I have done quite a bit of work myself) is *not*
> empiry. Nature contributes nothing to the process; it is purely
> artificial.>

> Leigh

************************************************************************

Question: Is man part of Nature?

Answer:  In ordinary colloquial speech, no; but, in strict philosophical
terms (in formal speech, generally), certainly yes.  We are not about to
open up a new "world" to account for the existence of human beings.  The
world of Nature is called the Universe, unless one specifically agrees to
include the nature of mental processes or the the nature of Platonic
ideals or the nature of relations in the discussion, but this is
equivocation, i.e., employing the word Nature in two senses in the same
sentence.  I am fairly certain that Leigh means the Universe by the word
Nature and man is in the Universe.

I don't relish admitting this, even though I have not for one minute
withdrawn from my position of resisting the study of the artifacts of
man; but, since man is part of Nature, everything he does or makes is
part of Nature as well.  Therefore, when one studies the behavior of
computers, one is, perforce, studying Nature.

Now, in the old days when I did numerical analysis, in part, by testing
theorems I had proved abstractly, I solved - on the computer - problems
such that the success or failure to solve (converge) enjoyed a one-to-one
relation with the truth or falsity of the theorem - modulo sets of
measure zero.  Of course, with respect to the real line, the set of all
of the numbers representable on the computer has measure zero.

In this particular case, I was not studying Nature, i.e., the Universe. 
I was studying the Ideals.  Normally, though, operating a computer does
not constitute the study of anything.  This, I believe, is Leigh's
concern.

Regards to all / The Dilettante

P.S.   I wish to thank Leigh for adding a new and powerful word to my
vocabulary, namely, empiry.