From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!michael Mon Mar  9 18:33:21 EST 1992
Article 4088 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar)
Subject: Re: Definition of understanding
Message-ID: <1992Feb27.213007.23635@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: Thu, 27 Feb 1992 21:30:07 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.  These personalities will typically
>claim to know different things and have different
>capabilities.  Think of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for an
>example of the sort of thing I'm talking about.  Suppose
>we find somebody with MPS in whom one of the personalities
>speaks Chinese and the other does not -- let's say Jekyll
>does and Hyde does not.  If we ask this victim, when
>he is expressing the Hyde persona, whether he speaks
>Chinese, he will say he does not.  Is he lying?  Or is
>he simply wrong?  If you're not willing to grant that
>there are actually two minds in one head, you have to
>say that he is wrong, don't you?
>
>  When the man in Searle's experiment (who has internalized
>the Chinese room) is asked whether he speaks Chinese, he
>says he does not.  Could it be that he is simply, in the
>same sense as Hyde, wrong?

First of all, a little reality.  MPD is an *extremely* controversial
disorder, with many psychologists claiming that, as it has been classically
defined, MPD doesn't exist, and that the phenomenon is best understood in
terms of "role-playing".  Secondly, the mere fact that people suffering
MPD can have their personalities "integrated" into a whole certainly shows
that they are not the "separate minds" that you want.

I will not deny that there are certain things that we may know but not
be aware of.  But this is vastly different from having two minds
running around in your head.

- michael



