The claim is about the absence of high-level concepts in the territory. These appear only the mind, as computational abstractions in processing low-level data. The logical incoherence comes from the disagreement between the definition of high-level concepts as classes of states of the territory, which their role in the mind’s algorithm entails, and assumption that the very same concepts obey laws of physics. It’s virtually impossible for the convenience of computational abstraction to correspond exactly to the reality of physical laws, and even more impossible for this correspondence to persist. High-level concepts ever change in the minds according to chance and choice, while fundamental laws are a given, not subservient to telepathic teleological necessity.
Edit: changed “classes of low-level concepts” to “classes of states of the territory”.
That was a bit confusing, and I have to go now, so I’ll try and give a more thorough response later. I’ll just say right now that I don’t think it’s as easy as you claim to differentiate between “higher-level” and “lower-level” entities/concepts/laws, or rather, to decide whether an entity is actually a fundamental thing with laws, or whether its just a concept. You appeal to changeability, but this seems like unsteady ground.
EDIT: Here’s a better way of formulating my objection: tell me the obvious, a priori logically necessary criteria for a person to distinguish between “entities within the territory” and “high-level concepts.” If you can’t give any, then this is a big problem: you don’t know that the higher level entities aren’t within the territory. They could be within the territory, or they could be “computational abstractions.” Either position is logically tenable, so it makes no sense to say that this is where the logical incoherence comes in.
The claim is about the absence of high-level concepts in the territory. These appear only the mind, as computational abstractions in processing low-level data. The logical incoherence comes from the disagreement between the definition of high-level concepts as classes of states of the territory, which their role in the mind’s algorithm entails, and assumption that the very same concepts obey laws of physics. It’s virtually impossible for the convenience of computational abstraction to correspond exactly to the reality of physical laws, and even more impossible for this correspondence to persist. High-level concepts ever change in the minds according to chance and choice, while fundamental laws are a given, not subservient to telepathic teleological necessity.
Edit: changed “classes of low-level concepts” to “classes of states of the territory”.
That was a bit confusing, and I have to go now, so I’ll try and give a more thorough response later. I’ll just say right now that I don’t think it’s as easy as you claim to differentiate between “higher-level” and “lower-level” entities/concepts/laws, or rather, to decide whether an entity is actually a fundamental thing with laws, or whether its just a concept. You appeal to changeability, but this seems like unsteady ground.
EDIT: Here’s a better way of formulating my objection: tell me the obvious, a priori logically necessary criteria for a person to distinguish between “entities within the territory” and “high-level concepts.” If you can’t give any, then this is a big problem: you don’t know that the higher level entities aren’t within the territory. They could be within the territory, or they could be “computational abstractions.” Either position is logically tenable, so it makes no sense to say that this is where the logical incoherence comes in.