The Chinese Room Problem in the Context of Functionalism Discussion

Abstract

This article formulates three theses regarding John Searle’s thought experiment called "Chinese room". The aim of this article is to demonstrate the internal logical contradictions of the mentioned thought experiment. The first point concerns the ability of the "Chinese room" to perform specific tasks which are required by Turing's "imitation game", such as formulating value-judgments about the subject matter. The second thesis concerns the term "understanding", which is used by John Searle. It is argued that this term is an abstract function (of a brain), and Searle's usage of this term should be understood as a case of functionalism, therefore Kalke's critics of Putnam's functionalism applies here. The third thesis of this article defines illocutive acts which express intentional states as emotional states, which allows suggesting that recreating of intentionality should be understood as recreating of reflexes.