Is Logic in the Mind or in the World? Why a Philosophical Question can Affect the Understanding of Intelligence

Dreyfus' call ‘to make artificial intelligence (AI) more Heideggerian‘ echoes Heidegger's affirmation that pure calculations produce no ‘intelligence’ (Dreyfus, 2007). But what exactly is it that AI needs more than mathematics? The question in the title gives rise to a reexamination of the basic principles of cognition in Husserl's Phenomenology. Using Husserl's Phenomenological Method, a formalization of these principles is presented that provides the principal idea of cognition, and as a consequence, a ‘natural logic’. Only in a second step, mathematics is obtained from this natural logic by abstraction.

The limitations of pure reasoning are demonstrated for fundamental considerations (Hilbert's ‘finite Einstellung’) as well as for the task of solving practical problems. Principles will be presented for the design of general intelligent systems, which make use of a natural logic.