Searle can be any X?? WTF? That’s a bit confusingly written.
The intuition Searle is pumping is that since he, as a component of the total system doesn’t understand Chinese it seems counterintuitive to conclude that the whole system understands Chinese. When Searle says he is the system he is pointing to the fact that he is doing all the actual interpretation of instructions and is seems weird to think that the whole system has some extra experiences that let it understand Chinese even though he does not. When Searle uses the word understand he does not mean demonstrate the appropriate input output behavior he is presuming it has that behavior and asking about the system’s experiences.
Searle’s view from his philosophy of language is that our understanding and mening is grounded in our experiences and what makes a person count as understanding (as opposed to merely dumbly parroting) Chinese is that they have certain kinds of experiences while manipulating the words. When Searle asserts the room doesn’t understand Chinese he is asserting that it doesn’t have the requisite experiences (because it’s not having any experiences) that someone would need to have to count as understanding Chinese.
Look, I’ve listened to Searle explain this himself multiple times during the 2 years of graduate seminars on philosophy of mind I took with him and have discussed this very argument with him at some length. I’m sorry but you are interpreting him incorrectly.
I know I’m not making the confusion you suggest because I’ve personally talked with him at some length about his argument.
Searle can be any X?? WTF? That’s a bit confusingly written.
The intuition Searle is pumping is that since he, as a component of the total system doesn’t understand Chinese it seems counterintuitive to conclude that the whole system understands Chinese. When Searle says he is the system he is pointing to the fact that he is doing all the actual interpretation of instructions and is seems weird to think that the whole system has some extra experiences that let it understand Chinese even though he does not. When Searle uses the word understand he does not mean demonstrate the appropriate input output behavior he is presuming it has that behavior and asking about the system’s experiences.
Searle’s view from his philosophy of language is that our understanding and mening is grounded in our experiences and what makes a person count as understanding (as opposed to merely dumbly parroting) Chinese is that they have certain kinds of experiences while manipulating the words. When Searle asserts the room doesn’t understand Chinese he is asserting that it doesn’t have the requisite experiences (because it’s not having any experiences) that someone would need to have to count as understanding Chinese.
Look, I’ve listened to Searle explain this himself multiple times during the 2 years of graduate seminars on philosophy of mind I took with him and have discussed this very argument with him at some length. I’m sorry but you are interpreting him incorrectly.
I know I’m not making the confusion you suggest because I’ve personally talked with him at some length about his argument.