Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!philabs.philips.COM!rlw From: rlw@philabs.philips.COM (Richard Wexelblat) Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: Natural Kinds Message-ID: <1415@briar.Philips.Com> Date: Tue, 21-Jul-87 12:56:08 EDT Article-I.D.: briar.1415 Posted: Tue Jul 21 12:56:08 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jul-87 00:56:12 EDT References: <8707161942.AA13065@nrl-css.ARPA> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: rlw@briar.philips.com (Richard Wexelblat) Distribution: world Organization: Philips Laboratories, Briarcliff Manor, NY Lines: 42 Approved: ailist@stripe.sri.com In article <8707161942.AA13065@nrl-css.ARPA> mclean@NRL-CSS.ARPA (John McLean) writes: >However, I think the issue being raised about recognizing penguins, >chairs, etc. goes back to Wittgenstein's _Philosophical_Investigations_: Actually, the particular section chosen is a bit too terse. Here is more context: Consider, for example the proceedings that we call `games.' I mean board- games, card-games, ball-games, Olympic games, and so on. What is common to them all?--Don't say: ``There must be something common, or they would not be called `games' ''--but look and see whether there is anything common to all. --For if you look at them you will not see something that is common to all, but similarities, relationships, and a whole series of them at that ... a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing; sometimes overall similarities, sometimes similarities of detail. I can think of no better expression to characterize these similarities than ``family resemblances''; for the various resemblances between the members of a family: build, features, colour of eyes, gait, temperament, etc. etc. overlap and criss-cross in the same way.--And I shall say: `games' form a family. * * * This sort of argument came up in a project on conceptual design tools a few years ago in attempting to answer the question: ``What is a design and how do you know when you have one?'' We attempted to answer the question and got into the question of subjective classifications of architecture. What is a ``ranch'' or ``colonial'' house? If you can get a definition that will satisfy a homebuyer, you are in the wrong business. * * * Gratis, here are two amusing epigrams from W's Notebooks, 1914-1916: There can never be surprises in logic. ~~~~~ One of the most difficult of the philosopher's tasks is to find out where the shoe pinches.