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Article 1611 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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Subject: Re: Zeleny (was Re: Searle
Message-ID: <1991Nov25.184712.2156@arizona.edu>
>From: bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs)
Date: 25 Nov 91 18:47:11 MST
Reply-To: bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs)
References: <1991Nov14.223348.4076@milton.u.washington.edu> 
 <MATT.91Nov24000158@physics.berkeley.edu> 
 <1991Nov24.195230.5843@husc3.harvard.edu> <1991Nov24.224724.2149@arizona.edu> <5691@skye.ed.ac.uk>
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In article <5691@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton) writes:
>In article <1991Nov24.224724.2149@arizona.edu> 
bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs) writes:

>>  Arguments such as Searle's and Penrose's and Zeleny's are 
>>essentially theological.  They all assume that humans have
>>one or another mystic power.  Penrose assumes that humans have
>>infallible intuitions for mathematical "truth".  Searle
>>assumes that human brains have unspecified "causal powers".

>Searle does _not_ assume this.  He concludes it.  The
>reason the causal powers are unspecified is that no one
>knows enough about how brains work.

>Moreover, Searle does not assume any mystic powers.
>He's more or less a materialist about mind.

Okay, I spoke too quickly.  You are partly right -- Searle
does not *assume* the stuff about "causal powers".  For
Searle the mystic thing is "intentionality", which he
seems to think of as being secreted by the brain in the
same sense as the hypothalamus secretes hormones.

The really curious thing about Searle is that he *is* a
materialist.  He thinks of intentionality as a material
thing.

	-- Bill




