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    If a program creates understanding of Chinese, the unders... — Carmelics
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    Home/Philosophy of Language
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    If a program creates understanding of Chinese, the understanding mind is distinct from the human operator of the Chinese Room.

    Consciousness & MindPhilosophy of Language
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The beliefs, desires, memories, and personality traits reflected in the Chinese answers are bestowed by the program and its database, not by the human operator.
      ?

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    • 2.A mind is individuated at least in part by its beliefs, desires, memories, and personality traits.
      ?

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    • 3.The beliefs and desires expressed in the answers are not the operator's beliefs and desires.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Mental states are individuated by causal-functional roles within a system, not by the origin of the content they process (Functionalism, Putnam 1967).
      ?

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    • 2.The human operator, not the program, instantiates the causal-functional roles required for understanding within the Chinese Room system.
      ?

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    • 3.Therefore, if understanding exists in the system, it is the operator's understanding, not a distinct program-generated mind.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The supporting argument conflates the vehicle of mental content (the program's database) with the subject who understands (Block's distinction between access and phenomenal consciousness).
      ?

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    • 2.Possessing beliefs and desires requires a biological or physical substrate capable of genuine intentionality, which only the human operator provides (Searle's biological naturalism).
      ?

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    • 3.A program lacks intrinsic intentionality and cannot be the locus of a distinct mind merely by encoding propositional content.
      ?

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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageConsciousness & Mind

    Related

    A mind is individuated at least in part by its beliefs, desires, memories, and p...A program lacks intrinsic intentionality and cannot be the locus of a distinct m...Mental states are individuated by causal-functional roles within a system, not b...Possessing beliefs and desires requires a biological or physical substrate capab...
    +5 moreShow less
    The beliefs and desires expressed in the answers are not the operator's beliefs ...The beliefs, desires, memories, and personality traits reflected in the Chinese ...The human operator, not the program, instantiates the causal-functional roles re...The supporting argument conflates the vehicle of mental content (the program's d...Therefore, if understanding exists in the system, it is the operator's understan...

    Similar

    If understanding of Chinese is created by running the program, the min...91%The mind doing the understanding in the Chinese Room is neither the mi...85%It is easier to establish that a machine exhibits understanding than t...83%There is a phenomenal difference between processing language without u...79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: chinese-room
    View source passageHide passage
    Cole (1991, 1994) develops the reply and argues as follows: Searle’s argument requires that the agent of understanding be the computer itself or, in the Chinese Room parallel, the person in the room. However Searle’s failure to understand Chinese in the room does not show that there is no understanding being created. One of the key considerations is that in Searle’s discussion the actual conversation with the Chinese Room is always seriously under specified. Searle was considering Schank’s progr
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit