From: andersw+@pitt.edu (Anders N Weinstein)
Date: 15 Nov 1996 18:25:07 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <328BD7D8.2EA6@postoffice.worldnet.att.net>,
kenneth paul collins   wrote:
>1. The functioning of nervous systems is deterministic 
>because, being comprised of organic materials, everything in 
>them must conform to what's described by the 2nd Law of 
>Thermodynamics (WDB2T).
>
>There exists no way around this.

Right, but it's irrelevant. A rock is a physical system but, prima facie, 
not a computer. 

Determinism at the physical level does not entail that there is any
interesting *computational* level. For that you need to find structured
representational vehicles with syntax and semantics.  Which might well
not be a useful higher-level functional explanation of human brains,
even if determininism obtains at the physical level of their constituents. 

If human behavior could *only* be explained at the physical level that
would mean there is no cognitive science, for cognitivism is committed to 
explaining by reference to representational vehicles, a higher-level
explanation.