The "Chinese room" thought experiment is designed to show that
A) Chinese is a very difficult language.
B) manipulating Chinese symbols isn't the same as understanding Chinese.
C) a Chinese speaker in a closed room would have a difficult time determining what's said outside the room.
D) None of the above

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The "Chinese room" thought experiment, proposed by philosopher John Searle, is intended to argue that manipulating symbols (as a computer does) is not the same as understanding the language or having "minds" in the sense that humans do. It suggests that a person inside a room following English instructions to manipulate Chinese symbols could appear to understand Chinese from the outside, even though they actually do not understand the language at all.

The "Chinese Room" Thought Experiment Is Designed to Show That