Review Article: Does Mind Matter?

A review of Steven W. Horst's Symbols, Computation, and Intentionality (Berkeley: U California Press, 1996) supports Horst's argumentation against the computational theory of mind on grounds that it is both empirically unsubstantiated & conceptually faulty. Horst's critique contains weaknesses, however, in its neglect of standard semiotic literature & its failure to define convention, which hamper Horst's claims that the meaning of ordinary signs is based on conventions & that conventions presuppose intentional states. Artificial intelligence & the computational theory of mind are faulted for introducing unfruitful dichotomies; given the difficulty of analyzing mental & communicative systems as autonomous entities, it is recommended that humans & computers be analyzed not as analogous or similar units but as cyborgs, ie, interacting units. 32 References. J. Hitchcock