I said at the beginning of this chapter that accepting the mind-brain identity theory has major
implications for questions about reality and knowledge, and I have tried to show how neural
processes such as perception and inference enable brains to have knowledge of reality. Implication,
like inference, is not a simple relation, as it requires looking at the most fully coherent system of
hypotheses, assessed through the dynamic interaction of representations operating in parallel. Hence
my argument is not some simple deduction: minds are brains, so constructive realism is true. Rather,
like all inferences, my conclusions are justified by overall coherence: given that minds are brains,
and given everything else we know, the most coherent conclusion is that people use perception and
inference to the best explanation to construct knowledge about reality. This process of justification
will seem circular if you think that knowledge should have a foundation of indubitable truths from
which other truths are derived. But no one has ever succeeded in identifying such a foundation in
either sense experience or a priori reasoning, so we have to strive instead to construct the most
coherent systems of representations that we can.
I said at the beginning of this chapter that accepting the mind-brain identity theory has majorimplications for questions about reality and knowledge, and I have tried to show how neuralprocesses such as perception and inference enable brains to have knowledge of reality. Implication,like inference, is not a simple relation, as it requires looking at the most fully coherent system ofhypotheses, assessed through the dynamic interaction of representations operating in parallel. Hencemy argument is not some simple deduction: minds are brains, so constructive realism is true. Rather,like all inferences, my conclusions are justified by overall coherence: given that minds are brains,and given everything else we know, the most coherent conclusion is that people use perception andinference to the best explanation to construct knowledge about reality. This process of justificationwill seem circular if you think that knowledge should have a foundation of indubitable truths fromwhich other truths are derived. But no one has ever succeeded in identifying such a foundation ineither sense experience or a priori reasoning, so we have to strive instead to construct the mostcoherent systems of representations that we can.
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..
