[ExI] Wernicke's aphasia and the CRA.

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Sat, 12/12/09, John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net> wrote:

>> syntax is neither constitutive of nor sufficient for semantics

> Why not?

Searle designed the Chinese Room thought experiment to prove that third premise in his formal argument.

The Englishman in the room shuffles the Chinese symbols according to the rules of Chinese syntax, and he does this well enough to pass the Turing test, yet he never understands a word of Chinese.

His experience would seem much like that of the Wernicke's aphasia patient with the lesion on the semantic center of his brain. He speaks fluent Chinese with good syntax and also has no idea what he's talking about.

-gts