Both (b) and (c) seem to draw out the claim that a material system lacks understanding. John Searle’s famous ‘Chinese Room’ argument (Searle 1980; see also the entry on Chinese room argument) seems to support this conclusion, at least if the material system takes the form of a classical computer, manipulating symbols according to rules. Searle imagines himself in a room with a letter box through which strings of symbols are posted in, and, following a book of rules, he puts out symbols whic