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Article 4363 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: smaill@aisb.ed.ac.uk (Alan Smaill)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Definition of understanding
Message-ID: <SMAILL.92Mar9215108@sin.aisb.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 9 Mar 92 21:51:08 GMT
References: <1992Mar6.172308.15113@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
	<1992Mar6.223154.26703@psych.toronto.edu>
	<1992Mar7.010644.1466@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
	<1992Mar9.162941.1959@psych.toronto.edu>
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In-Reply-To: michael@psych.toronto.edu's message of 9 Mar 92 16:29:41 GMT

In article <1992Mar9.162941.1959@psych.toronto.edu> michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar) writes:

   Yes, I *do* believe that I have special access to my understanding, or
   at least to my *beliefs* about my understanding.  I *know* when I believe
   I understand Chinese.  I may be wrong that I in fact *do* understand it,
   but, unlike any other person, I cannot be wrong about my *belief* that
   I understand it.  I *do* stand in a privileged position with regard to
   my mental states.  (Otherwise, to use a favorite example, we'd need a doctor
   to tell us whether we were in pain or not.)

   If you wish to deny an individual privileged access to their mental states,
   fine, but it's going to take a *lot* of argument. 

Well, I don't deny that the individual has access to his/her own mental
states in a different way than they have access to the mental states of
others.  What is problematic is the claim that the individual is
necessarily correct in evaluating their own mental states.
(By the way, I assume you agree that statements like "I am in pain"
are somewhat different from "I understand Chinese", in that
the former might be taken to be basic, primitive judgement.)

So, what happened to the sub-conscious?  to repression of beliefs?
Is it not possible to deceive oneself as to what one really believes?
Is it not a problem if I believe I believe X, yet my actions
only make sense assuming I really believe not X?  

--
Alan Smaill,                       JANET: A.Smaill@uk.ac.ed             
Department of Artificial           ARPA:  A.Smaill%uk.ac.ed@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
       Intelligence,               UUCP:  ...!uknet!ed.ac.uk!A.Smaill
Edinburgh University. 


