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A comment on On Chomsky and the Two Cultures of Statistical Learning. Parent comment

Re:On Chomsky and the Two Cultures of Statistical Learning by alphamerik on Friday May 27, 2011 @10:11AM (#2591490)
This is a good example of why (how?) language is so weird. Maybe I am just satiated, but for an inquisitive mind, to me "Why is the moon in the sky?" and "How is the moon in the sky?" parse out to be semantically equivalent. Science (astronomy) does try explain how (why?) we exist and under what circumstance the universe came into existence (if it did).
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Re:On Chomsky and the Two Cultures of Statistical Learning by wccrawford on Friday May 27, 2011 @12:24PM (#2591982)
They are actually quite different.

'How' asks about the current state of things and how they are possible.

'Why' asks about the past, and how the current state of things came to be.

Depending on interpretation of the question, 'why' can be a lot more philosophical than 'how'.

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