🚀 go-pugleaf

>Prove to me the Chinese Room does not understand, without
>resorting to asking Searle-inside whether (or not) he does.

---

	Thomas Hobbes was undertaking a similar task without
computers of course!  We moderns have a lot to learn :-).
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz wrote a letter to Hobbes in the form
of a dialogue.  (It is presumed that that A is really Hobbes).
It was written in 1677 when Leibniz was just 24 years old!


A. If you were given a string and required ti shape it in such
   such a way that it turned on itslef and enclosed as much space
   as possible, how would you shape it ?

B. Into a circle.  For the geometers show that the circle is the
   shape that has the greatest  capacity for a given circumference.
   And it there were two islands that could be circumnavigated, one
   circular, the other square, the circular island would contain 
   more territory.

A. Do you think that this is true, even if you are not thinking
   about it ?

B. Of course.  It was true even before geometers had demonstrated it
   or before people had observed it.

A. So you think that truth and falsity are in things, and NOT IN
   THOUGHTS ?

B. Yes, indeed.

A. Then a thing is false ?

B. Not a thing, I think, but a thought or propositioni about a thing.

A. And so falsity pertains to thoughts, not to things.

B. I am forced to admit it!

A. Therefore truth as well ?

B. So it seems. But I hesitate over whether this consequence holds.

A. Now, when a question has been posed, and before you are certain
   of your opinion, aren't you in doubt about whether something
   is true of false ?

B. Certainly.

A. Therefore, you know that the same subject is capable both of
   truth and falsity, until one of the two is determined by the
   particular nature of the question.

B. I know and I admit that if falsity pertains to thoughts, then
   truth pertains to thoughts, and not to things.

A. But this contradicts what you said earlier, that even something
   no one might be thinking of can be true.

B. You have confused me.
---

ok. I will continue if you think this dialogue is of help.