The Exception Principle


An important principle about rule modification is the Exception Principle: It rarely pays to tamper with a rule that nearly always works. It's better just to complement it wiht an accumulation of specific exceptions." (NB: What does Minsky mean by rule?) Exceptions are always a problem when attempting to define (or create) concepts. But "concept perfection" by means of using more and more accumulation will not work. "The pwoer of ordinary words like `fish' comes form how we make them span so many meaning-worlds at once. However, in order to do this, we have to be able to tolerate many exceptions." Important warning comes with this -- don't confuse conceptual inventions for natural phenomena!


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