Metacognition
It is easy to draw extravagant and unwarranted conclusions from the suggestion that our minds lack the equipment to solve the major problems of philosophy... In mathematics, one says that the integers are closed under addition... but this does not mean that the set of integers is finite. Humanly thinkable thoughts are closed under the workings of our cognitive faculties, and may never embrace the solutions to the mysteries of philosophy...
Is cognitive closure a pessimistic conclusion? Not at all! I find it exhilarating, a sign of great progress in our understanding of the mind. And it is my last opportunity to pursue the goal of this book: to get you to step outside your own mind for a moment and see your thoughts and feelings as magnificent contrivances of the natural world rather than as the only way that things could be. (Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works, p. 562-563)
One, has Pinker heard of Ockham's Razor? Perhaps it is not useful to dwell on the "mysteries of philosophy", i.e. theology, cosmology, et. al.
Two, Pinker suggests an interesting point about thoughts and feelings.
Three, I enjoyed his other book, The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language much more than this book. But perhaps that's just my preference.
Is cognitive closure a pessimistic conclusion? Not at all! I find it exhilarating, a sign of great progress in our understanding of the mind. And it is my last opportunity to pursue the goal of this book: to get you to step outside your own mind for a moment and see your thoughts and feelings as magnificent contrivances of the natural world rather than as the only way that things could be. (Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works, p. 562-563)
One, has Pinker heard of Ockham's Razor? Perhaps it is not useful to dwell on the "mysteries of philosophy", i.e. theology, cosmology, et. al.
Two, Pinker suggests an interesting point about thoughts and feelings.
Three, I enjoyed his other book, The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language much more than this book. But perhaps that's just my preference.