vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) (03/20/88)
[ Followups directed to sci.psychology only ] In article <484@minya.UUCP> jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers) writes: >In article <941@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>, vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) writes: >> >If you don't know how to learn, then how can you learn to learn? >> >How can you ever learn anything at all, if you aren't initialized with the >> >ability to learn? >> >> Why do I need to know how to learn in order to learn? Do you deny that >> unconsioucs learning can occur? The view I cited says that >> non-intelligent organisms do not in fact know how to learn, cannot learn >> to learn, cannot control their learning. > >Oh, I see. You aren't distinguishing between knowledge and awareness. Well, I am distinguishing between awareness of something (knowledge of how to do something) and the ability to do something. Lower animals *have the ability to learn*, but do not in fact know anything, especially not how to learn. >It's quite possible to know without being consciously aware of the knowledge. I don't know. That's difficult. I know that some people think that, for example, one (unconsciously) knows a language in the same sense that I know today's date. But if this is so, it becomes difficult to distinguish between knowledge and ability. Let's just say it's a contentious point, one that doesn't really bear on our argument: planaria don't know anything, but *can* learn. >Anyhow, if there is no "knowledge" (conscious or otherwise) of how to learn, >then the organism has no ability to learn, and so it can't learn to learn. >Standard bootstrapping problem. Awareness is another issue entirely. I don't doubt that you and I know how to learn, probably unconsciously. I do doubt that such knowledge is necessary for the learning itself. Planaria just don't know anything at all. I have no idea what awareness has to do with it. O----------------------------------------------------------------------> | Cliff Joslyn, Professional Cybernetician | Systems Science Department, SUNY Binghamton, New York, but my opinions | vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .