American philosopher who developed speech act theory, the Chinese Room argument against strong AI, and biological naturalism — the view that consciousness is a causally emergent property of brain processes.
Speech act theory: utterances are acts (illocutionary acts) with force beyond their propositional content — promising is not merely saying. Chinese Room: syntax is not sufficient for semantics; symbol manipulation does not produce understanding; therefore computationalism about the mind is false. Biological naturalism: consciousness is a real, irreducible phenomenon that is causally produced by and realized in brain processes.
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