silber@sbphy.ucsb.edu (03/15/89)
(re: prev. posting which seems to my poster to have failed) Stephen Harnad's abstract regarding the HOW of symbol grounding seems (to me) to support my vaguer notions re: the WHEN of the biological evolution of 'symbols'. The 'iconic' sensory projections would seem analogous to my example of the eye-spot of the euglena, the 'categorical' learned or innate patterns would seem to be analogous to the evolution of instinctual behaviour in pre-cognitive species. Detailing the HOW of symbol-grounding must, most probably, confront every dualism and paradox conceivable. Yet that HOW is what is really at the core of "understanding" what is "human", not that humankind is a tool-using species, but rather that human-kind (including various apes and cetacians) is capable of "abstracting" the idea which leads to a tool! "Understanding" that HOW is THE most important open question exactly because it bears upon the question: Why SHOULD matter think?