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Searle and the Chinese Room Argument

            John Searle is an American philosopher who is best known for his thought experiment on the Chinese Room Argument. This argument is used to show that computers cannot process what they comprehend and that what computers do does not explain human understanding. The question of "Do computers have the ability to think?" is a very conflicting argument that causes a lot of debate between philosophers in the study of Artificial Intelligence-a belief that machines can imitate human performance- and philosophers in the Study of Mind, who study the correlation between the mind and the physical world. Searle concludes that a computer cannot simply understand a language just by applying a computer program to it and that in order for it to fully comprehend the language the computer needs to identify syntax and semantics.
             The way in which the Chinese Room example works is that suppose that a person who does not understand or speak Chinese at all is told to sit in a room with an input slot and an output slot. A person that understands Chinese slips Chinese characters through the slot hoping for a response in return. The person sitting in the Chinese room is given a set of formal rules for using the Chinese symbols; however, the rules do not tell him what the words mean, they just simply indicate what they should write back in response to the letters he has received through the input slot. These rules entail grammatically correct information to the receiver even though the person in the room has not idea what they are writing out; a similar-or same- concept that a robot has. The rules only mention the shape and order the characters should be presented-their syntax. This is where Searle argues the idea of semantics as one cannot come to the understanding of the symbols just by copying them according to specific rules concerning syntax. To all external presences, though, you perform just like you understand Chinese.


Essays Related to Searle and the Chinese Room Argument

1. The Concept of Computer Consciousness

Semantics, in fact, is one of the key characteristics of the Chinese Room Argument. The Chinese Room Argument is an analogy created by John Searle. ... His Chinese Room Argument disputes the validity of the Turing Test. ... " There is a response to Searle's Chinese room argument that is known as the System Reply. ... This is an interesting theory, and offers a different way of viewing the Chinese Room Argument. ...

  • Word Count: 1527
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Can Machines Think?

Searle then argues that despite not being able to understand Chinese, he would, under the correct circumstances, be able to answers Chinese questions in Chinese, relating to a story also written in Chinese. The scenario is summarised as follows; Sitting isolated in a room, Searle is given a wad of Chinese script, followed by another. ... By simply following the English rules, he writes a third set of chinese words which he then returns to someone outside the room. ... Regarding the entire room, the person in the room (to whom I shall refer for the sake of continuity of terms as a demon), the...

  • Word Count: 1323
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography

3. Watson Doesn't Know It Won by John Searle

, by Professor John Searle for the University of California, Berkeley. ... Citing an argument he raised in the 1980's, he compares the "thinking " that IBM claims Watson does to that of a man in a room processing Chinese symbols to answer questions with no recognition of what the symbols mean or say. ... My argument with Prof. Searle's article is that I think he is using a couple of words incorrectly. ... The mind, however, is where his argument could have been better laid out. ...

  • Word Count: 912
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Turing Test

Introduction Topic Chosen: [5] The Turing Test and Searle's Chines Room Argument In order to simplify the terminology used in this discussion, I will refer to the Turing Test and Chinese Room Argument individually as "investigations". The Turing Test and Searle's Chinese Room Argument are both investigations and/or explorations into the so-called mind of a computer machine. ... To avoid confusion in my discussions, I have decided to discuss the Turing Test separately from Searle's Chinese Room Argument. ... [wikipedia] John Searle is currently Mills Professo...

  • Word Count: 779
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Humanoid Robots

Searle's reply to my argument, that consciousness lies within a beings understanding and awareness of self, would lend itself to his Chinese Room example. This example refers to a scenario where a man is locked in a room and given a large batch of Chinese writings. ... Searle proposes that after a while the man got so good at following the instructions, that his responses to the questions became indistinguishable from a native Chinese speaker. ... Searle's argument here is that the man doesn't really understand Chinese; the man "produces the answers by manipulating uninterpre...

  • Word Count: 1573
  • Approx Pages: 6

6. Humanoid Robots

Searle's reply to my argument, that consciousness lies within a beings understanding and awareness of self, would lend itself to his Chinese Room example. This example refers to a scenario where a man is locked in a room and given a large batch of Chinese writings. ... Searle proposes that after a while the man got so good at following the instructions, that his responses to the questions became indistinguishable from a native Chinese speaker. ... Searle's argument here is that the man doesn't really understand Chinese; the man "produces the answers by manipulating uninterpre...

  • Word Count: 1573
  • Approx Pages: 6

7. Artificial Intelligence

In addition to the argument for understanding language, we have numerous other problems that machines face when mimicking humans. ... There are two factions and have conforming arguments. ... In the counter argument to functionalism it is easy to see that Deep Blue is not a "living entity" but a very well programmed computer. ...

  • Word Count: 2048
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Measuring Artificial Intelligence

Turing Test and the Chinese Room Experiment Computer's are not perceived as intelligent even though they are very fast, accurate, diligent, and versatile on their work. ... No machine has come close to passing this test which is the reason we consider our machines as unintelligent. (318) Stevan Harnad's "Chinese Room Argument" explains how John R. Searle developed an experiment called the Chinese Room experiment in 1980. ... Searle did a thought experiment to test Turing's test in Chinese and found out that the computer program he was testing is able to pass the Turin...

  • Word Count: 2656
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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