Here's my linguistic diversity handout, which shows an
implementation of the same trivial computer program in each of ten
different programming languages -- pretty much all the languages
Marc and I could muster on short notice. I "know" each of the
languages there except Ruby and MarxMenu, although I "know" some
other languages other than those represented. It's interesting to
see how much variety there is in the appearance of these languages,
and all of them are fairly mainstream as far as modern programming
languages go. (I didn't try to use APL or INTERCAL or one of the
really bizarre ones.)
The most canonical source for seeing the diversity of programming
languages in the world is the famous
99
Bottles of Beer page, which shows the "99 Bottles of Beer
on the Wall" program in hundreds of different
languages.
If the Platonist is going to insist on that distinction, he has
got to have an epistemlogy which does not link up in any
interesting way with other disciplines. He will end up with an
account of knowledge which turns its back on the rest of
science. This amounts to making knowledge into something
supernatural, a kind of miracle.
(Philosophy and Social Hope, xxvii)
What a powerful and significant comment I found this! This
miraculousness was, and often is, my view. It's interesting that
people as different as John Searle and Wendell Berry (and Martin
Gardner, it seems) are prepared to insist on the miraculousness of
the human mind and human knowledge. (Berry wrote an attack on the
"scientism" of E. O. Wilson -- who pushed naturalistic analysis into
every corner of psychology and culture -- called Life is a
Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition, which
I have not read.) The rest of natural science seems to be
leaving these critics behind, for example insisting on the great
importance of neuropsychology and neurophysiology for philosophy,
but the critics enjoy an enormous influence on culture -- some say
because they try to flatter human beings, others because they insist
on what is best or what is unique about people.
I remember how I hated the implications of something like
Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity. There
Skinner attacks "the literatures of freedom and dignity" which
insisted on making the human mind into what Rorty calls "a kind
of miracle". Rorty himself firmly endorses freedom and dignity,
but believes that they are no part of human nature, but rather
something made by particular cultures in particular parts of
history.
One reason for the attacks on people like Rorty is the sense
that they undermine intellectual defenses against people like
Skinner. For example, you often hear something to the effect
that, if we didn't have a human nature, we would have no reason
to prefer Rorty's personal vision of an open and free society
with the Skinner-inspired vision of a totalitarian society
which appears in Brave New World. Rorty seemed
to answer that there was never any conclusive reason to prefer
one over the other, and so we were left on our own, without
any particular foundation, to seek the one we preferred as
best we could. And this is one reason it's depressing to read
Stanley Fish, because he says that kind of thing on almost
every single page.
Anyway, I have finished a first draft of my song parody.
Believe (Richard Rorty Remix)
Male voice: Lola?
Female voice: Huh?
Male voice: Die philosophen haben die Welt interpretiert.
Female voice: Es kommt darauf an, sie zu verändern.
I don't believe in Knowledge
I don't think it's attained
And I believe there's nothing lost
by doubting her again.
I don't believe in Plato
I don't believe in Kant
I don't believe you can perceive
the things beyond your sense.
I don't believe in Science
'cause Science does not know.
But I believe in Dewey and
in James and Berthelot.
I don't believe in Reason
that accesses the Truth
I don't believe philosophies
that held me in my youth.
I don't believe society could be
the way it "should";
But I hope for humanity --
the future's lookin' good.
I don't believe Theology
or in the Moral Law
I don't believe morality
is written in the stars.
I believe! I believe!
I don't believe in Essence
I don't believe in Truth
'cause I believe reality
is that which we can use.
I don't believe that Reason
swings free of history.
But I believe in irony
and solidarity.
I don't believe in Science
'cause Science does not know.
But I believe in Dewey and
in James and Berthelot.
I don't believe in Reason
that accesses the Truth
I don't believe philosophies
that held me in my youth.
I believe!
I want you to try,
no need to know why
No maxims, no rules
No ethical schools.
I believe!
No natures, no facts
No essences, no forms
For Rorty, just we
No realism to see.
I believe!
I want you to try,
no need to know why
No maxims, no rules
No ethical schools
No natures, no facts
No essences, no forms
For Rorty, just we
No realism to see...
Zack noticed a copy of the Dover reprint of String Figures
and How to Make Them at a bookstore, and I bought it for
$1 (he already has two copies). This is an elaborate guide to
Cat's Cradle and much more, from an era in which string figures
and games were an active subject of anthropological research.
The book teaches you how to make the famous "Osage Diamonds";
maybe I will learn that. I also have the Dover book Fun
With String, which Zack has never seen. Ah, the simple
pleasures people enjoyed before the transistor...
I read about prime numbers a bit and also about the Lucas-Lehmer
test for primality of Mersenne numbers. Now I see why people who
want to find record primes like to search for Mersenne primes.
(EFF has a famous cash
prize offered for discovering prime numbers of sufficient size.
The next prize is available to a discovered of a 10,000,000 digit
prize.)
Zack had some good ideas about BBC development, and Nick did
some nice technical work.
I went out to Union Square at mid-day and wandered around briefly.
The war and the economy don't seem to have chilled the Christmas
shopping season too much, although I don't have too much experience
for purposes of comparison.
I got some very nice press coverage which I might be able to
talk about some day.
I was invited to the Small
World Brunch; you can be more useful to that project than I
can if you know someone in the Bay Area from a country other than
the U.S.
My friend Katy is moving to a really neat neighborhood in San
Francisco. As it happens, I know the exact block she's going to
be living on, and I'm jealous! (I'm very happy with where I live
now, though.)
