[Inquiry] Being Ahead Of One's Sign?

[Jon Awbrey]

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speaking of infernal recurrences ...

we keep running across statements to the effect that so & so --
or such & such a population -- "had no concept of" this or that.

short of indulging in psychohistory, which is always as risky
as it is fun to do, i do not see that we ever have any evidence
for such statements aside from the circumstance that the agents
in question "had no signs for" this or that.

but saying what meanings an agent has signs for is something
that we cannot do without proceeding relative to a hypothesis,
specifically, our own contingent interpretation of their signs.

i see many problems there ...

not too unlike the problems of
other minds, turing tests, and
incommensurable paradigms, oh my ...

jon

cc: arisbe, inquiry

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