Terms like "Gestalt" mask our ignorance. "We say `gestalt' when things combine to act in ways we can't explain.
Minsky provides a set of subjective questions, and a set of objective questions. (NB: They are supposed to contrast nicely with one another, but I'm a little too thick to capture the subtleties that M. is trying to communicate here.) Minsky argues that the objective questions are less mysterious. "Many people assume that those `subjective' kinds of questions are impossible to answer because they involve our minds. But that doesn't mean they can't be answered. It only means that we must first know more about our minds."
Minsky aruges that if we hide behind pseudoexplanations like "holistic", we will never understand aspects of psychology that are of interest to humanists. Instead, for M. we have to find out lots more about mental agents. Question: Will Minsky describe what agents *really* are, or will he just name them -- as he has only been doing early in the book!
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