Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!unmvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!elbereth.rutgers.edu!harnad From: harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Stevan Harnad) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: letter to THE NEW YORK REVIEW concerning AI Summary: On Understanding Searle On Understanding Keywords: Searle, Chinese room, Minsky Message-ID: Date: 10 Feb 89 02:08:00 GMT References: <7471@venera.isi.edu> Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 39 smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) of USC-Information Sciences Institute posted his letter to THE NEW YORK REVIEW concerning AI in which he wrote: " Searle... play[s] rather fast and loose with words like " "understanding"... he is still willing to state baldly, "It is just a " plain fact about me that I do not understand Chinese." This "plain " fact," however, might be questioned... Searle is never willing to say " enough about what constitutes understanding to support why he should " come to so obvious a conclusion... he does not seem willing to " acknowledge that introspection may ultimately be a very poor judge of " his understanding. If some body of native Chinese speakers are all " willing to acknowledge that he understands Chinese... who is he to " argue on the basis of his potentially deceptive powers of introspection? Look, I'm a critic of Searle's, but with enemies like this, Searle can afford unilateral disarmament! Read the above passage again, and look what you're brushing aside with this sort of hand-waving! I'm not the final authority on whether or not I understand Chinese? Let's hope it's not up to a body of natives of any kind to "acknowledge" that I'm not in pain either! "Fast and loose" indeed; to criticize Searle's argument one must first set aside one's current dogmas or wishful thinking and UNDERSTAND it! " a good deal has been achieved in the study of mind over these " intervening eight years... Most notable is the... recent contribution " of Marvin Minsky in The Society of Mind... there is nothing about " [Minsky's] definition which would deny that Searle, or anyone else in " his Chinese room, is actually understanding Chinese. Without prejudice as to whether or not much has been achieved in the study of mind lately, surely this is not a matter of "definition," and if there is a theory in which it is, so much the worse for that theory. -- Stevan Harnad INTERNET: harnad@confidence.princeton.edu harnad@princeton.edu srh@flash.bellcore.com harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu harnad@princeton.uucp BITNET: harnad@pucc.bitnet CSNET: harnad%princeton.edu@relay.cs.net (609)-921-7771