FOM: Evolution and reason

Michael Thayer mthayer at ix.netcom.com
Thu Apr 2 09:04:00 EST 1998


Neil Tennant writes of his uniformity postulates:
[...]


>On the other hand, if you reject these uniformity postulates, then
>the evolutionary story doesn't help to establish the necessary
validity/truth
>of the logic and number theory that we happen to have developed, because it
>is given against the background of the concession that, had the
evolutionary
>process been governed by different physical laws, different logics or
>number theories might have developed.


True but Bill's evolutionary story WOULD explain why we BELIEVE that they
are necessarily valid: we have been hard-wired to have that belief.  Of
course if there are no other possible worlds but this one, then the
necessity would seem to return.

Michael




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