Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Acting irrationally (was Re: Free Will & Self Awareness)
Summary: What is the name of your value system?
Keywords: I should stay out of this, but what the hell...
Message-ID: <31570@linus.UUCP>
Date: 11 May 88 15:04:06 GMT
References: <770@onion.cs.reading.ac.uk> <1177@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <10942@sunybcs.UUCP> <31024@linus.UUCP> <28798@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: Hysterics Associates, Lake Placid, NY
Lines: 15

I appreciated Bruce Krulwich's analysis of the cognitive chain
initiated by a yelling/hitting episode.  The fifth (and last)
link in the chain of reasoning, is that the target of the verbal
abuse draws a conclusion about the abuser:

>    5.  Thus he learns that the other person feels strongly about
>        something, which most of the time is the goal that the yeller
>        or hitter had in the first place

Wouldn't it have been easier if the yeller had simply disclosed his/her
value system in the first place?  Or do I have an unrealistic expectation
that the yeller is in fact able to articulate his/her value system to an
inquiring mind?

--Barry Kort