X-Message-Number: 21404
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 00:28:12 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Abstractions and Reality

Eric at Transoniq writes in part:

>I guess I have a single question for any of those who think
>that abstractions (souls, minds, information, stories, software,
>numbers, letters, etc) actually exist: By what possible
>mechanism do *any* of these have *any* effect on anything in
>the universe?

To me it is reasonable, for instance, to say that information has an 
influence on people, or on the course of civilization. A book such as 
Aristotle's *Nicomachean Ethics*, considered as the body of information 
that it is, has had such influence. I don't deny that you can interpret 
reality in such a way as to eliminate any reference to "information." You 
could instead only refer to concrete physical objects such as physical 
assemblages of pages with certain physical marks on them, and to certain 
people who behaved in certain ways when certain streams of photons traveled 
from the pages in question to their eyes. A cumbersome and unappealing way 
to approach reality, in my view. Not necessary, not desirable. To allow 
abstractions does not, in and of itself, imply any logical incoherence, and 
there are advantages to be gained.

Mike Perry

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