ABSTRACT
Daniel Dennett is only one of a growing number of philosophers who have come to think that research in the discipline that has become known as ‘artificial intelligence’, together with allied work in linguistics, provides a basis for a new philosophy of mind. Just as N. Chomsky in linguistics readily admits that the conception of language he advocates bears a strong resemblance to conceptions of language influenced by Descartes’ conception of the mind, so the view of the mind associated with the idea of artificial intelligence is R. Descartes’. Both in linguistics and in the philosophy of mind an old conception has been revived by the introduction of computational tools and techniques. The advantages of the ‘old way of ideas’ are difficult to over-estimate. Dennett’s paper ‘Artificial Intelligence as Philosophy and as Psychology’ in Brainstorms is generally thought to provide a clear statement of the rationale for this development.
