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Article 1934 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: freitag@elrond.toppoint.de (Claus Schoenleber)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Searle and the Chinese Room
Message-ID: <u95kcB2w164w@elrond.toppoint.de>
Date: 7 Dec 91 12:44:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: elrond.u95kcB2w164w
References: <1991Dec5.191043.10565@psych.toronto.edu>
Organization: Claus Schoenleber, Kiel, Germany (3-926986)
Lines: 31

michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar) writes:


> [Some lines on holiday]
> The strength of Searle's arugment is that, contrary to what some may claim,
> it does not rest on any particular way of telling the Chinese Room story.  Th
> argument simply is that it is impossible to generate semantics from a purely
> syntactic system.  This, Searle argues, is a *logical* point, true simply in
> virtue of what the words "syntax" and "semantics" mean.  
> [Following lines vanished]

What, please, is the (your) meaning of "syntax" / "semantics"?
(especially "semantics")


BTW, isn't it possible, that there does exist a level of complexity in syntax,
where the quantity of syntax changes to quality (i.e. semantics)? 2 cents? ;-)

Regards, Claus.

p.s.: I didn't find ever an exact (or formal) definition for "semantics".
      (except in compiler theory)
                          

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