The Chinese Room Argument by John Searle
John Searle’s famous Chinese Room Argument has been the target of great interest and debate in the philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence and cognitive science since its introduction in Searle’s 1980 article ‘Minds, Brains and Programs’. It is no overstatement to assert that the article has been the centre of attention for philosophers and computer scientists for quite some time. The Chinese Room is supposed to scuttle the thought of strong AI: which implies that computers have mental states. The Chinese Room arises out of the following, now familiar, story: Searle asks us to imagine that a man is seated in a sealed room with 2 doors: one allowing input from one source outside the room (in the form of a slot) and one allowing output to the source outside the room (also in the form of a slot). The input from the outside source are Chinese squiggles that have Continue reading