La Mettrie extends the Cartesian conception of animal-machines through the affirmation of a “man-machine” (1748). Nevertheless, such an extension of the mechanical model of comprehension, as effected by La Mettrie, constitutes a profoundly anti-Cartesian gesture: in this way, he challenges the Cartesian dualism of extended substance and thinking substance. Likewise, the concept of artificial intelligence extends the Cartesian mechanism to thought. It was Alan Turing who explored this idea of a test to find out whether an automaton could imitate human intelligence. One of Descartes’ criteria was the impossibility for an automaton to simulate our thoughts by speech. The Turing test is an artificial intelligence test proposal based on a machine’s ability to mimic human conversation.
Recent studies in biology
Recent studies in biology on the logical capacities of animals have shown, in contrast to the ideas of Descartes, that they have a sense of causality. Thus, chimpanzees know how to reason inferentially by exclusion, know the elementary rules of physics (idea of weight on a scale …). While philosophers and psychologists influenced by Descartes believed that animals can easily be conditioned through an arbitrary stimulus (Pavlov’s dog), experiments in great apes show that they prefer a causal approach. It has also now been demonstrated that the functioning of the cells which constitute a living being is probabilistic, which strongly contradicts the determinism of the animal-machine.
The distinction between falsification and refutation in the demarcation problem of Karl Popper
Despite the criticism of Karl Popper’s falsifiability theory for the demarcation between science and non-science, mainly pseudo-science, this criterion is still very useful, and perfectly valid after it was perfected by Popper and his followers. Moreover, even in his original … Read More
The Republic – On Justice (Annotated), by Plato
Πολιτεία, published on 375 BC, by Plato (428/427 or 424/423 BC – 348/347 BC) Translation by Benjamin Jowett (1817 – 1893), Published by The Colonial Press in 1901 Special Introduction by William Cranston Lawton (1853 – 1941) Introduction by Nicolae … Read More
Easter Traditions
A short introduction about Easter from the perspective of various religions, traditions and cultures, including Easter season, Easter bread, Easter eggs, greetings, etc. Easter is the most important religious holiday of the Christian liturgical year, observed in March, April, or … Read More
Leave a Reply