Quote #28

There are clear cases in which 'understanding' literally applies and clear cases in which it does not apply; and these two sorts of cases are all I need for this argument.

More from John Searle

  1. The sense in which an automatic door 'understands instructions' from its photoelectric cell is not at all the sense in which I understand E…
  2. We often attribute 'understanding' and other cognitive predicates by metaphor and analogy to cars, adding machines, and other artifacts, bu…
  3. Our tools are extensions of our purposes, and so we find it natural to make metaphorical attributions of intentionality to them; but I take…
  4. My car and my adding machine understand nothing: they are not in that line of business.
  5. In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.
  6. I will argue that in the literal sense the programmed computer understands what the car and the adding machine understand, namely, exactly …
  7. I want to block some common misunderstandings about 'understanding': In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about t…
  8. Just acquiring this amount of 'education' will not, by itself, make you an educated person, even less will it give you what Oakeshott calls…

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