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Article 2636 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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ai!jeff
>From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: "causal powers"
Message-ID: <5945@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 10 Jan 92 18:34:35 GMT
References: <5907@skye.ed.ac.uk> <60265@aurs01.UUCP> <1992Jan10.013529.28228@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Reply-To: jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton)
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Lines: 23

In article <1992Jan10.013529.28228@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> chalmers@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) writes:
>In article <60265@aurs01.UUCP> throop@aurs01.UUCP (Wayne Throop) writes:
>
>>Hence my question: is there anything that a human can cause that a CR
>>or a computer cannot?  If not, in what sense does the human have
>>causal powers (quoted or not) that the CR or computer lacks?
>>
>>At best, "causal powers" seems a very ill-chosen term.
>
>The relevant "causal powers" for Searle are the abilities to cause
>a mind, intentionality, subjectivity, and so on.  This is a point that
>very frequently gets lost in discussion.  The claim that only something
>with the right causal powers could think is therefore a conceptual truth
>for Searle, not any kind of empirical claim.  And if one assumes that the
>Chinese Room argument is correct, then the fact that humans have causal
>powers that the Chinese room lacks is a trivial consequence.  It's not a
>notion that can do any independent work for Searle or his followers,
>although sometimes the phrase is waved around as if it could.

Just so.  Well said.  Etc.

Perhaps there should be an FAQ list for Searle issues, gto clear up
common misconceptins.


