From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!jupiter!morgan.ucs.mun.ca!nstn.ns.ca!aunro!lll-winken!ames!agate!stanford.edu!CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU!CSD-NewsHost!jmc Tue Nov 26 12:32:07 EST 1991
Article 1561 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Searle (was Re: Daniel Dennett (was Re: Comme
Message-ID: <JMC.91Nov24194704@SAIL.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 25 Nov 91 03:47:04 GMT
References: <1991Nov14.223348.4076@milton.u.washington.edu>
	<MATT.91Nov24000158@physics.berkeley.edu>
	<1991Nov24.195230.5843@husc3.harvard.edu>
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In-Reply-To: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu's message of 25 Nov 91 00:52:29 GMT

I'm puzzled about Zeleny's message addressed to my work, but I
understand (assuming the Latin is just a decoration) where he says

     A symbol is an iconic or a substitutive sign, something that
     stands for something else, *aliquid stat pro aliquo*.  A C
     function is a symbol standing for an assembly language
     algorithm, and, eventually, for a sequence of machine
     language instructions, in virtue of your system's compilers.
     Pray tell, what part of the computer hardware or software
     could make it stand for something outside the machine, as
     signs used by humans stand for things in virtue of their
     meanings?

Let's start out simple.  The reading of a digital thermometer
"stands for" the temperature.
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.


