From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!christo Mon Mar  9 18:34:52 EST 1992
Article 4228 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green)
Subject: Re: Definition of understanding
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
References: <1992Feb28.211025.26278@oracorp.com> <1992Feb29.162020.9271@psych.toronto.edu> <1992Mar3.025214.26880@smsc.sony.com>
Message-ID: <1992Mar3.201743.20894@psych.toronto.edu>
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1992 20:17:43 GMT

In article <1992Mar3.025214.26880@smsc.sony.com> markc@smsc.sony.com (Mark Corscadden) writes:
>
>Can you imagine memorizing a large look-up table of actions and then
>carrying out the actions called for by the table without ever having
>any personal understanding of the purpose behind the actions?  Even
>when virtually anyone in a position to watch your table-driven actions
>from, say, an outside perspective unavailable to you, would have no problem
>understanding their purpose?  I have no trouble imagining such a state
>of affairs.  

Neither do I. And it's clear from your description that the person engaging
in the activities would not UNDERSTAND what they were doing, whereas a
native Chinese speaker does. This is the point. Whether or not others
can make sense of their behavior is irrelevant.

>It's clear (to me) that a person can implement, using their
>memory alone, a behavior which they throughly fail to understand.  Thus
>the system, in spite of the fact that it is a strict and proper subset of
>the person who is implementing it, can have properties of which the person
>implementing it is wholly ignorant.  

And, as you yourself say, NOT UNDERSTAND, unlike the native Chinese speaker.

>There "is no system apart from the
>cognitive activities of the man", but circumstances have been contrived
>so that the man only understands his own cognitive activities in terms
>of rote recall and may be totally unaware of the meaning of his own
>cognitive activities!

And, thus, once again, HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND.

The systems repsonse does nothing to aleviate the situation.
-- 
Christopher D. Green                christo@psych.toronto.edu
Psychology Department               cgreen@lake.scar.utoronto.ca
University of Toronto
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