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why don't we blow "treacles"??Great question - but you presuppose logic in CRS? 
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Hey shanks. I also must plead ignorance as to the Chinese room thought experiment. A bit of a clue in would be nice.
There is a some important differences between connaître, savoir and comprendre. In the context we are discussing now...
Connaître means knowing more or less precisely.
Savoir means remembering in a way that you can repeat the knowledge.
Comprendre means understanding the subject or thing.
As to Jerry Fodor. True, we will never know what it is like to be a bat, but it is also true that we will know what it is to by any other person in the world. You can generalize or assume, but you can never know for sure.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I forget what the point was, but the Chinese room thought experiment goes something like this:
Imagine a room containing a person who does not understand Chinese and a list of all possible questions in Chinese with the answers, also in Chinese. Every so often somebody transmits a question in Chinese into the room. The person in the room looks up the question in the list of Chinese questions and then transmits the appropriate answer. How can the people outside tell whether or not the person inside understands Chinese?
Bingley
Bingley
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Bingley
I think you're just about right. You don't take it as far as Searle does, though, because he uses this thought experiment to point out what he considers the difference between syntax and semantics. He says that, as far as any observer outside is concerned, the man in the room, or the room itself, seems to understand Chinese. But we know that the man in the room hasn't a clue about Chinese - he is just manipulating, to him meaningless, symbols. Ergo, the Turing Test plays us false: even if someone, or some entity, could behave human (or speak Chinese) that is no assurance that this person is human (or understands Chinese).
In fact a number of philosophers have attacked this thought experiment, and there was, famously, some rather vitriolic correspondence between Searle and Dennett on this issue (I think it may have been in the New York Times). I (personal opinion only) plump for Dennett's interpretation and reject Searle's - but the debate ain't done and dusted yet.
cheer
the sunshine (pretentiously philosophising) warrior
ps. As far as the thinking like a bat thing goes, see Wittgenstein on 'the beetle in the box', and remark on how fragile is the basis upon which we attribute consciousness to others...
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- I'm not talking to myself, honest..Good to know  ! Otherwise I should call you a solipsist, since this is where one ends up by categorically refuting the possibility to share meaning.
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It wasn't Fodor who wrote the classic paper "What is it like to be a bat", it was Thomas Nagel. Sorry if I misled you.
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I appreciate that this isn't the forum in which to carry on about one of my obsessions (consciousness studies in philosophy and science), so here's a link to take you to some reference material: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/online.htmlOnce you get there, however, you are going to have to do your own looking up. For those who prefer their information printed, and part-digested, here are some books that talk about these matters: Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett (also wrote the more well-known Darwin's Dangerous Idea) The rediscovery of the mind John Searle (had to include him in fairness - I may disagree with his ideas, but his advocacy of freedom of speech and other liberal notions makes him someone I respect) How the mind works Stephen Pinker (one of the best all-round books on the subject, by the well-known author of The language instinct) How brains think William Calvin (a research scientist in neurobiology explains how the brain works to produce thought - outstanding stuff, though you may have to get past his own hobby-horse of ballistics being the key to consciousness/intelligence) Think Simon Blackburn (a general introduction to philosophy, and a remarkably good one, in my opinion) I think all of these are still in print, and they should be available on Amazon (or your local big bookshop could order them for you). I shall do my best not to talk about consciousness and meaning any more on this board. I promise (I can be a good boy, I can...) cheer the sunshine warrior
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the Turing Test plays us falseWell yes, shanks (or am I addressing Searle?), but my point is that it doesn't matter! More accurately, it doesn't matter to me. Which, of course, means that I will soon discover that this Board and all its many and varied characters are merely the invention of a state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I will soon discover that this Board and all its many and varied characters are merely the invention of a state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence.Who the Hal are you, then?
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... me thinks you mistake me. Shona I have tried to say at every turn that I am merely representing Searle's ideas, even though I disagree with them!  Ah well, so much for the ability of language as a communication tool. (Sulking in his tent - bring me Briseis now, and make sure she's scrubbed!)
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