Extraterrestrials : a philosophical perspective

113 Pages·2010·0.658 MB·English

by  Kukla, André

Philosophy
“Virtually since the birth of theorizing, theorists have
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been enthralled by the prospect of intelligent extrater-
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restrial life. And in our own day a good deal of toil and L
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treasure is being devoted to explore the possibilities.
The nature of this enterprise raises many fascinating and
complex questions across the whole spectrum of human
knowledge about life, intelligence, and language. André EXTRATERRESTRIALS
Kukla’s book provides a penetrating and instructive conspectus of the substantial array
of important issues at stake.” —NICHOLAS RESCHER, University of Pittsburgh
E A P H I L O S O P H I C A L
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The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, has attracted both praise and sharp
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A P E R S P E C T I V E
criticism from the mainstream scientific community over the years. Extraterrestrials: A T
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Philosophical Perspective explores the important philosophical issues that are at play in R
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this discussion. André Kukla closely examines several of the prominent ideas surround- E
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ing the possibility of extraterrestrial life, such as the vastness of the universe argu- R
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ment, the argument from mediocrity, and the one world, one science argument while L
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offering innovative theories of his own. Among other things, Kukla uses Chomsky’s
account of language acquisition to explain why humans will never be able to commu-
nicate with extraterrestrials. Extraterrestrials offers a close and thorough treatment
of extraterrestrial life that will intrigue a wide audience, especially those who are
interested in the philosophy of science.

ANDRÉ KUKLA is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Toronto.
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Extraterrestrials

Extraterrestrials
A Philosophical Perspective
André Kukla
LEXINGTON BOOKS
A division of
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham• New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
Published by Lexington Books
A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.lexingtonbooks.com
Estover Road
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United Kingdom
Copyright © 2010 by Lexington Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kukla, André, 1942–
Extraterrestrials : a philosophical perspective / André Kukla.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. x) and index.
ISBN 978-0-7391-4244-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-7391-4245-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-7391-4246-2 (electronic)
1. Extraterrestrial beings. 2. Science—Philosophy.
I. Title.
QB54.K85 2009
576.8’39—dc22
2009032272
Printed in the United States of America
(cid:1) ™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Chapter One On the Prospect of an Extraterrestrial Encounter 1
Chapter Two On the Pursuitworthiness of Extraterrestrial Studies 25
Chapter Three SETI versus CETI 43
Chapter Four The One World, One Science Argument 47
Chapter Five Innateness, Linguistic Universals, and
Extraterrestrial Communication 63
Notes 95
References 97
Index 101

Acknowledgments
Chapters 1 and 2 were published in a slightly different form in Studies in
History and Philosophy of Science (2001, 32, 31–67). Chapter 4 was pub-
lished in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (2008, 59, 73–88).
vii

Chapter 1
On the Prospect of
an Extraterrestrial Encounter
My topic is extraterrestrial intelligence. Following current conventions, I use
the abbreviation ETI to stand for three related concepts: (1) the abstract idea
of extraterrestrial intelligence, (2) individuals who are both extraterrestrial
and intelligent (as in “There’s an ETI in the closet”), and (3) the hypothesis
that there are ETIs. SETI is the search for ETIs, and CETI is the attempt to
communicate with ETIs. In this chapter, I will try to answer the most basic
question in extraterrestrial studies: what is the status of the ETI hypothesis?
In the light of what we know, how likely is it that there are ETIs? We’ll start
with a brief history of the subject.
1.1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF ETI
Humans have been concerned with extraterrestrial questions more or less
continuously since antiquity. Those who aren’t familiar with the history of
the subject may be surprised to learn that for the most part, it was the pro-
ETI view that there are intelligent extraterrestrials that was in ascendancy.
There were some dissenting voices—among them St. Augustine, St. Thomas
Aquinas, and Albertus Magnus.1 But they were greatly outnumbered by the
pro-ETI forces, which included Aristotle, Plutarch, Lucretius, Nicholas of
Cusa, Giordano Bruno, Gassendi, Locke, Lambert, Kant, Thomas Wilkins,
Christian Huygens, and Bernard de Fontenelle.2
The two ancient writers who dealt most extensively with the topic of ETI
were Plutarch and Lucretius. Both of them were pro-ETI, but each gave
different reasons for his position. Their arguments presaged the two basic
strategies for arguing in favor of ETI for centuries to come. Some features of
1