“For generations, scientists and philosophers have tried to explain ordinary reasoning in terms of logical principles — with virtually no success.”

—  Marvin Minsky , book Society of Mind

Source: The Society of Mind (1987), p. 187
Context: For generations, scientists and philosophers have tried to explain ordinary reasoning in terms of logical principles — with virtually no success. I suspect this enterprise failed because it was looking in the wrong direction: common sense works so well not because it is an approximation of logic; logic is only a small part of our great accumulation of different, useful ways to chain things together.

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Marvin Minsky 65
American cognitive scientist 1927–2016

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