The Ascription Of An Unconscious

Our Tools Are Extensions Of Our Purposes, And So We Find It Natural To Make Metaphorical Attributions Of Intentionality To Them; But I Take It No Philosophical Ice Is Cut By Such Examples.

"akrasia" [weakness Of Will] In Rational Beings Is As Common As Wine In France.

Darwin's Greatest Achievement Was To Show That The Appearance Of Purpose, Planning, Teleology (design), And Intentionality In The Origin And Development Of Human And Animal Species Was Entirely An Illusion. The Illusion Could Be Explained By Evolutionary Processes That Contained No Such Purpose At All. But The Spread Of Ideas Through Imitation Required The Whole Apparatus Of Human Consciousness And Intentionality

I Want To Block Some Common Misunderstandings About "understanding": In Many Of These Discussions One Finds A Lot Of Fancy Footwork About The Word "understanding."

I Will Argue That In The Literal Sense The Programmed Computer Understands What The Car And The Adding Machine Understand, Namely, Exactly Nothing.