Minds and Computers : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence

prima facie
on the face of it – on first inspection.
prime number
a number whose only factors are itself and one.
program
the rule which governs the operations of a register machine.
qualia
a technical philosophical term for the subjective, qualitative,
privileged, first person aspects of experience.
recursive definition
a means of finitely specifying an infinite class,
consisting of a base clause and a recursive clause. The binary
numbers can be defined recursively as follows: one and zero are
both binary numbers (base clause) and adding a one or a zero to
any binary number results in a binary number (recursive clause).
reflex arc
a Pavlovian term which is intended to account for the rela-
tion between stimulus and behaviour.
register machine
a kind of formal system which can be used to define
computation.
rules
one of the two collections which constitute a formal system.
For any given rule and any given state it must be e
ffective whether
or not the rule applies and, if it does, it must e
ffectively deliver a
finite number of output states.
semantics
broadly speaking, meaning.
sonorant
a phoneme whose production requires that the passage of
air through the articulatory apparatus not be obstructed.
states
one of the two collections which constitute a formal system.
States can be defined over any collection of entities, provided there
is an e
ffective procedure for distinguishing between any two states.
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straw man fallacy
mischaracterising an opposing position as being
weaker than it actually is, then arguing against the weaker position.