that the mechanical view is
the only one necessary
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"I say, that these functions
imitate those of a real man as perfectly as
possible and that they follow naturally in this
machine entirely from the disposition of the
organs - no more nor less than the movements of a
clock or other automaton, from the arrangement of
its counterweights and wheels. Wherefore it is
not necessary, on their account, to conceive of
any vegetative or sensitive soul or any other
principle of movement and life than its blood and
its spirits, agitated by the heat of the fire
which burns continually in its heart and which is
of no other nature than all those fires that
occur in inanimate bodies." |
on
the difference between man and machine
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Descartes refers to those
who might be acquainted with the automata and, in
respect of the human body, suggests
"Such persons will look upon
this body as a machine made by the hands of
God, which is incomparably better arranged,
and adequate to movements more admirable than
any machine of human invention. Were there
such machines exactly resembling in organs
and outward form an ape or any other
irrational animal, we could have no means of
knowing that they were in any respect of a
different nature from these animals; but if
there were machines bearing the image of our
bodies, and capable of imitating our actions
as far as it is morally possible, there would
still remain two most certain tests whereby
to know that they were not therefore really
men. Of these the first is that they could
never use words or other signs arranged in
such a manner as is competent to us in order
to declare our thoughts to others. The second
test is, that although such machines might
execute many things with equal or perhaps
greater perfection than any of us, they
would, without doubt, fail in certain others
from which it would be discovered that they
did not act from knowledge, but solely from
the disposition of their organs. Again, by
means of these two tests we may know the
difference between men and brutes."
[shades of the Turing test] Descartes, Discourse
on Method (Part V)
(1637) (transl. J Veitch).
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