| Philosophy of Mind | |||||
| Introduction | Dualism | Behaviourism | Identity Theory | Functionalism | Dennett |
| The Chinese Room Argument | |
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The criticisms implied by the Turing test are expanded upon by another thought experiment provided by the American philosopher John Searle. Searle imagines that someone who does not understand Chinese is placed in a room with an "In" hatch and an "Out" hatch. Through one hatch come Chinese symbols, which the person responds to by arranging other Chinese symbols according to rules laid down in a book and sending them out through the other hatch. If we imagine
that the "In" hatch provides questions in Chinese which
the person "answers" by following rules set out in the
book, we have what Searle considers a certain view of artificial
intelligence. But would the person in the room really be said to
understand Chinese? Searle thinks no and therefore argues that no
view of artificial intelligence could ever result in a truly conscious
being (in the human sense) because all that is ever happening is
rule-based activity (which is not how humans work). |