Quote #27
The sense in which an automatic door 'understands instructions' from its photoelectric cell is not at all the sense in which I understand English.
More from John Searle
- Our tools are extensions of our purposes, and so we find it natural to make metaphorical attributions of intentionality to them; but I take…
- There are clear cases in which 'understanding' literally applies and clear cases in which it does not apply; and these two sorts of cases a…
- 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, bu…
- In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.
- I will argue that in the literal sense the programmed computer understands what the car and the adding machine understand, namely, exactly …
- I want to block some common misunderstandings about 'understanding': In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about t…
- Just acquiring this amount of 'education' will not, by itself, make you an educated person, even less will it give you what Oakeshott calls…