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Philosopher J.R. Lucas Has Passed Away

J R Lucas | Faculty of Philosophy

John Randolph (JR) Lucas, pictured here, received his philosophical education at Oxford University in the 1950s. He was a student of R.M Hare, a central figure in mid 20th century debates over meta-ethics.

Lucas never took to meta-ethics himself, though. His interests were in applied (business) ethics, the philosophy of mathematics, and the philosophy of mind.

Probably the one contribution of Lucas' that will still draw the attention of the historians of philosophy in another century is his invocation of Godel's incompleteness theorem in the course of arguments about the human mind and artificial intelligence, which in turn inspired Douglas Hofstadter. Much of Godel, Escher, Bach was a reply to Lucas.

Here's a Lucas paper on point: http://www.leaderu.com/truth/2truth08.html

If I understand the argument, Lucas believed that humans will in principle always be able to outsmart computers (or "Turing machines") because such machines have limits that follow from the incompleteness theorem, and humans, not being Turing machines, do not.

The significance of the argument depends in large part on the definition of a Turing machine, which has a lot to do with the iterated use of on/off switches. Some of the most plausible ways forward on artificial intelligence have us going way beyond anything Alan Turing would recognize, even as to the basics, going beyond in particular the binary (0/1) operation. If present projections for quantum computing work out, Lucas' argument will seem quaint.

It will seem so, especially, to our future metallic overlords.

Still, the historians of philosophy will care, metallic though they may be. I am confident that it will still be seen as an important turn in conversations they will still be having.

Lucas passed away on April 5, at 90 years of age. Vale. 

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  1. neme amberApril 22, 2020 at 3:03 AM

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