Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!munnari.oz.au!basser!metro!sunaus.oz!softway!peg!ggast
From: ggast@peg.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Can humans "understand" mathematics
Message-ID: <130200002@peg>
Date: 16 Dec 89 18:01:00 GMT
References: <3120@uceng.uc.edu>
Lines: 36
Nf-ID: #R:uceng.uc.edu:3120:peg:130200002:000:2123
Nf-From: peg.UUCP!ggast    Dec 16 13:01:00 1989



    I agree entirely that Searle is missing something.Everyone who has 
    learnt  a foreign language will know immediately what I  mean.When 
    you  start learning a foreign language your thought process is  in 
    your  mother  language, and each word of a sentence  you  want  to 
    speak  in the foreign language you have to translate according  to 
    memorized  rules  .This is a difficult and tedious  process,  just 
    like learning to play piano where you have to translate notes into 
    keystrokes consciously.
    Once  you  have practiced the foreign language  or  piano  playing 
    enough    the   translation   process   becomes   automatic    and 
    subconscious.This   increases   the   speed   of   the   operation 
    considerably and you start thinking in the foreign language.
    Following  Minky's  ideas I would say during learning  a  parallel 
    language agency with cross-connections to your mother language  is 
    created and with enough practice it runs just as smoothly as  your 
    old one.Semantics will result from these cross-connections.
    In that sense you "understand" the foreign language in the  moment 
    the prallel processing runs automatically and Chinese symbols  are 
    correlated automatically to English symbols.But I have to add that 
    you  " understand " English only because you have once  learnt  to 
    associate  acoustic  symbols with real things  (nouns),  processes 
    (verbs)  or attributes (adjectives and adverbs).This includes  the 
    naming  of  certain emotions and feelings too.You  will  associate 
    happiness  with a smiling face because your mother once  said  she 
    feels  happy  and smiled while doing so.To "understand"  does  not 
    only  imply  correct application of rules but  also  an  emotional 
    quality such as having a feeling of security in the application of 
    rules.This feeling of security gives rise to another feeling, that 
    is  satisfaction and it will arise once the application  of  rules 
    is performed on a subconscious level.

    Dr.Gert Gast
    Byron Bay 2481
    Australia