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Article 4954 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: mcdermott-drew@CS.YALE.EDU (Drew McDermott)
Subject: Re: The Challenge
Message-ID: <1992Apr7.152136.9857@cs.yale.edu>
Keywords: Searle, Chinese Room
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References: <6419@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1992Apr1.150750.9618@cs.yale.edu> <1992Apr2.181357.25444@psych.toronto.edu>
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 15:21:36 GMT
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  In article <1992Apr2.181357.25444@psych.toronto.edu> michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar) writes:

  >Come on, Drew, isn't this a bit, well, petulant?   

Referring to this paragraph of mine:

  >>Anyway, what I plan to do is post the following message in the future
  >>when the Room comes up:
  >>
  >>From the FAQ file (that is, of Fruitlessly Argued Quagmires):
  >>
  >>Searle's Chinese Room argument appears to be less an argument than an
  >>opportunity for people to disagree about understanding and semantics.
  >>At least in this newsgroup, there are few people who are willing to
  >>defend the Chinese Room argument as such, although there are many who
  >>think that those who attack the argument are trivializing important
  >>questions.  The consensus seems to be that it is better to discuss
  >>those questions directly than to put them in the context of the
  >>Chinese Room.  I have come to this conclusion because no one was
  >>willing to accept the following
  >>
  >>                    ** CHALLENGE **

  >[original challenge deleted]

I crafted this paragraph to avoid petulance.  I would welcome
suggestions on how to edit.  I am sincere in wanting to have a message
we can post to quickly acquaint newcomers to the newsgroup with the
state of play on the Chinese Room.

[Michael had some other responses that I will address separately.]
                                  


