I will argue that in the literal sense the programmed computer understands what the car and the adding machine understand, namely, exactly nothing.
Author
John Searle
3 quotations
About John Searle
John Rogers Searle was an American philosopher widely noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and social philosophy. He was the Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language at the University of California, Berkeley, until 2019. He was relieved of his position after disciplinary proceedings found he had violated the university's sexual harassment policies.
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Car
My car and my adding machine understand nothing: they are not in that line of business.
We often attribute 'understanding' and other cognitive predicates by metaphor and analogy to cars, adding machines, and other artifacts, but nothing is proved by such attributions.