Platt Holden (pholden@worldnet.att.net)
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 04:23:20 +0100
Hi Horse and LS:
Thanks for your post of July l3 in which you expand on the methodology
of
fuzzification. I'm still confused, but then I'm confused about a lot of
things said on this site.
I agree that we can view our experiences in various shades of gray and
can
endlessly qualify the statements we make about our experiences,
"extending"
ourselves up to ever higher levels of abstraction until indeed there are
no
distinctions left, A morphs into NOT A and all dissolves into one happy
cloud of incoherent mysticism.
Which is all well and good. Pirsig's Quality has mysticism written all
over
it, reflecting the experience that there are some things we know that
can
never be put into words, whether bivalent or multivalent. Abstract art
is
built on that premise, attempting to show that what is irrational,
meaningless and/or paradoxical is nonetheless real and valuable.
If I read you right perhaps we agree on that. What boggles me is that
you
seem to deny the efficacy of binary logic but then go right ahead and
use
it to explain why "fuzzy logic" is better. In fact, I would be so bold
as
to say that it's impossible to explain fuzzy logic without comparing it
to
classical logic. Intellect depends on contrasts and comparisons, on
patterns and contexts, on hard distinctions between this and that. In
other
words, without the hard "cuts" inherent in binary logic, intellect would
be
lost, and we would be lost along with it. I know of no such thing as
being
fuzzy dead.
Again, I'm sure I've misinterpreted your viewpoint. But let me add that
even though I can find little common ground between us, I thoroughly
enjoy
reading your posts. There's always hope that someday I may "get it." In
the
meantime, be assured that I also think the MOQ "has made our view of
reality more coherent," not because it reflects fuzzy logic, but because
it
describes and explains what I experience better than SOM.
Platt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu May 13 1999 - 16:43:28 CEST