Watson the Philosophy of Watson: Essay

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This is only using the mind as a metaphor for intelligence, however, which would again be a problem for James and would also be a problem from an ontological perspective. In order to consider whether or not Watson has a mind, and indeed whether or not any computer could ever have a mind, a consideration of Gilbert Ryle's thoughts concerning the nature of the mind is very much needed. Ryle asserts that the misunderstanding of the split between the mind and the body that has been a philosophical problem since at least the time of Rene Descartes arises because people misunderstand the nature of the mind by equating it with the body. Though the body is part of what Ryle calls the "deterministic system" of the world and though people have tried to explain the mind using the same deterministic system, what is meant by "mind" in this sense has nothing to do with the physical and deterministic world an operates in a completely different manner that cannot be explained in the same terms as something deterministic. Asking how the mind works invites many problems in meaningful explanation.

Asking whether or not Watson has a mind or whether or not any computer could have a mind is also fraught with many problems, first because the practical ddefintion of a 'mind" and the difference of having a mind or not having a mind would need to be defined according to James, and second because the non-physical mind that is the interesting aspect of Watson (if it exists for Watson) cannot be explained or understood in physical and deterministic terms, according to Ryle. Ryle's argument touches on both epistemology and ontology, then, limiting what can be known about the mind and especially the mind of another (which is an epistemological problem) while also making it difficult to understand the nature of the mind's existence in human beings and even more so in computers and artificial creations (which is an ontological problem).

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It could be argued that Watson's "mind" must be purely physical, as it was constructed out of physical materials and operates according to very specific physical and deterministic laws, and this would mean that it is not really of the same substance of the "mind" as Ryle insists "mind" is meant in discussions of mind-body duality. It could also be argued, though maybe less strongly, that the physical parts of the brain or a computer might make it possible for thoughts to exist but that the thoughts themselves still exist in a separate and entirely different manner than the physical thinking apparatus, and if this were the case it would be as impossible to know if Watson has a mind as it would to be able to tell if another human being actually had a mind of their own.

Conclusion

Technology continues to push the boundaries not only of human knowledge but also of human questions. While the issues of mind-body duality and of what can be known to be true have been part of philosophical discussions for centuries, it is only in the current era of advanced computers that these questions begin to have direct practical and even ethical relevance in the human world. The truth might still not be entirely known, but seeking it is more imrpotant than ever......

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