[net.philosophy] infinite regressions

dir@cbosgd.UUCP (Dean Radin) (05/24/84)

I'm writing a paper that is tangentially concerned with 
the difficulty of replicating psychological experiments.
Most experiments involving human behavior are extremely
difficult to replicate, even under "exactly" the same conditions.
It is not unusual for an experimenter to get completely
opposite results in two apparently identical experiments.
This is probably due to all the uncontrolled and hidden unknowns 
in these so-called exact replications.

With this in mind, I wonder whether humans experimenting on humans 
experimenting on humans ... can be considered an infinite regression of sorts.
And if so, how might this relate to quantum mechanical measurement
and the uncertainty principle?

For instance, is it possible in principle for humans to observe 
one another with such a depth of understanding that even the subtlest
behavior can be predicted 100%?  How does the uncertainly principle 
apply to this question?  Who has written on this topic?

Dean Radin   AT&T Bell Labs  cbosgd!dir

lorien@dartvax.UUCP (Lorien Y. Pratt) (05/26/84)

I think you're running up against the traditional difficulty with
"doing" psychology well enough so that it's reproducible:  the
functions of mind that can be consciously introspected aren't
necessarily at the appropriate level for modeling the mind.

In other words, though we appear to think via words, a verbal model is
rotten for building cognitive models.  So Chomsky and others proposed
models based on logic that were one level deeper -- in terms of
symbols.  As scientists, we can follow the connection between this
symbolic level and behavioral/introspective results.  But what if the
proper level to model brain function is much deeper?  We'll have to
develop translation functions between the low-level "language" of the
brain and our conscious observations in order to validate our
theories.  This is an enourmously complex problem.

I don't see how the (which?) "uncertainty" principle has much to do
with it.  I realize the above is a tangeant to your tangeant, though.

      --Lorien Y. Pratt
	Dartmouth College Library
	Hanover, NH  03755

	decvax!dartvax!lorien