From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wupost!uunet!psinntp!scylla!daryl Mon Mar  9 18:33:15 EST 1992
Article 4079 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
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>From: daryl@oracorp.com
Subject: Re: Definition of understanding
Message-ID: <1992Feb27.130232.11124@oracorp.com>
Organization: ORA Corporation
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1992 13:02:32 GMT
Lines: 41

jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:

Quote from: christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green)

     When Steven Harnad came to the University of Toronto to give a
     colloquium on *his* solution to the Chinese Room, he noted, "Everyone
     thinks that defining understanding is so difficult.  Well, here..." at
     which point he spouted something entirely incomprehensible in a
     non-English language.  "There," he said, "that was Hungarian.  Did you
     understand that?  If not, then you know what understanding
     involves..."

> Some AI types are claiming that "understand" as used in Searle's
> arguments needs to be defined, explained, etc before they will take it
> seriously.  If they don't think there's something obscure about it,
> why don't they just tell us what it means and save a lot of time and
> net bandwidth.

> Instead, whenever someone like Harnad tries to explain it, they accuse
> them of indulging in debating tricks.

> Indeed, if Harnad's explanation didn't help at all, why not?

Come on, Jeff, do *you* believe that Steven Harnad has explained
anything about understanding with his example in Hungarian? Is the
meaning of "understanding" clearer to you now than it was before you
heard Harnad's explanation?

I already knew that I didn't understand Hungarian (or Chinese, or
Finnish, etc.) However, it is not obvious how to generalize from my
subjective experience to something objective. And an objective
definition is needed in order to say under what circumstances
*another* being can be said to understand something.

Daryl McCullough
ORA Corp.
Ithaca, NY






