From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!christo Mon Mar  9 18:32:48 EST 1992
Article 4037 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green)
Subject: Re: Definition of understanding
Message-ID: <1992Feb26.165452.7666@psych.toronto.edu>
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
References: <1992Feb25.011840.24663@beaver.cs.washington.edu> <1992Feb25.184610.5199@psych.toronto.edu> <1992Feb26.021000.29992@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1992 16:54:52 GMT

In article <1992Feb26.021000.29992@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs) writes:
>In article <1992Feb25.184610.5199@psych.toronto.edu> 
>christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green) writes:
>> 
>>If you really want your argument to rely wholly on the very dubious 
>>assumption that there are, somehow, two minds running around inside
>>the man's head, feel free, but the utter tendentiousness of the claim
>>is patently obvious to everyone not committed a priori to the belief
>>that computers JUST GOTTA have minds.  [ . . . ]
>
>  There is a kind of psychological disorder called
>Multiple Personality Syndrome, whose victims express,
>at different times, two or more very distinctive
>personalities.  

You aren't seriously suggesting that MPS can be induced by the Chines room,
are you? MPS is VERY controversial. There are many psychiatrists who
question its very existence; that is they question the interpretation of
the behavior observed as being the result of two independent "personalities".
If you really do believe that the Chinese room can induce MPS, then it
seems to me you're committed to a number of other even more patently
false view, such as MPS resulting from, say, taking a calculus course.
The idea of two systems running on the same hardware is raf removed
(in the absence of ANY evidence) from MPS.

-- 
Christopher D. Green                christo@psych.toronto.edu
Psychology Department               cgreen@lake.scar.utoronto.ca
University of Toronto
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