Dreyfus argues that the very limitation of AI’s objective—formalizing disembodied, rule‑governed aspects of human behavior in a digital machine—is what gives the field overwhelming philosophical significance, since its success or failure will either confirm or undermine a long‑standing mechanical conception of human reason.

By Hubert L. Dreyfus, from What Computers Can't Do

Key Arguments

  • He calls AI workers ‘these last metaphysicians’ and claims they are ‘staking everything on man's ability to formalize his behavior; to bypass brain and body, and arrive, all the more surely, at the essence of rationality,’ explicitly linking their project to a metaphysical tradition.
  • He notes that computers have already provoked a technological revolution ‘comparable to the Industrial Revolution,’ and that, if Simon is right, AI is about to trigger an even greater ‘conceptual revolutiona change in our understanding of man.’
  • Dreyfus recalls Aristotle’s definition of man as a rational animal and suggests that if artificial intelligence is achieved, it will mark ‘the triumph of a very special conception of reason’ and confirm an understanding of man ‘as an object’ long in development in Western thought.
  • Conversely, if artificial intelligence proves impossible, we will be forced ‘to distinguish human from artificial reason,’ which would also radically transform our self‑conception.
  • Therefore he concludes that ‘the moment has come either to face the truth of the tradition's deepest intuition or to abandon the mechanical account of man's nature which has been gradually developing over the past two thousand years.’

Source Quotes

It must only compete in the more objective and disembodied areas of human behavior, so as to be able to win at Turing's game. This limited objective of workers in artificial intelligence is just what gives such work its overwhelming significance. These last metaphysicians are staking everything on man's ability to formalize his behavior; to bypass brain and body, and arrive, all the more surely, at the essence of rationality.
This limited objective of workers in artificial intelligence is just what gives such work its overwhelming significance. These last metaphysicians are staking everything on man's ability to formalize his behavior; to bypass brain and body, and arrive, all the more surely, at the essence of rationality. Computers have already brought about a technological revolution comparable to the Industrial Revolution.
Aristotle defined man as a rational animal, and since then reason has been held to be of the essence of man. If we are on the threshold of creating artificial intelligence we are about to see the triumph of a very special conception of reason. Indeed, if reason can be programmed into a computer, this will confirm an understanding of man as an object, which Western thinkers have been groping toward for two thousand years but which they only now have the tools to express and implement.
If we are on the threshold of creating artificial intelligence we are about to see the triumph of a very special conception of reason. Indeed, if reason can be programmed into a computer, this will confirm an understanding of man as an object, which Western thinkers have been groping toward for two thousand years but which they only now have the tools to express and implement. The incarnation of this intuition will drastically change our understanding of ourselves.
The incarnation of this intuition will drastically change our understanding of ourselves. If, on the other hand, artificial intelligence should turn out to be impossible, then we will have to distinguish human from artificial reason, and this too will radically change our view of ourselves. Thus the moment has come either to face the truth of the tradition's deepest intuition or to abandon the mechanical account of man's nature which has been gradually developing over the past two thousand years.
If, on the other hand, artificial intelligence should turn out to be impossible, then we will have to distinguish human from artificial reason, and this too will radically change our view of ourselves. Thus the moment has come either to face the truth of the tradition's deepest intuition or to abandon the mechanical account of man's nature which has been gradually developing over the past two thousand years. Although it is perhaps too early for a full answer, we must make an attempt to determine the scope and limits of the sort of reason which has come fully into force since the perfection of the "analytical engine."

Key Concepts

  • This limited objective of workers in artificial intelligence is just what gives such work its overwhelming significance.
  • These last metaphysicians are staking everything on man's ability to formalize his behavior; to bypass brain and body, and arrive, all the more surely, at the essence of rationality.
  • If we are on the threshold of creating artificial intelligence we are about to see the triumph of a very special conception of reason.
  • Indeed, if reason can be programmed into a computer, this will confirm an understanding of man as an object, which Western thinkers have been groping toward for two thousand years but which they only now have the tools to express and implement.
  • If, on the other hand, artificial intelligence should turn out to be impossible, then we will have to distinguish human from artificial reason, and this too will radically change our view of ourselves.
  • Thus the moment has come either to face the truth of the tradition's deepest intuition or to abandon the mechanical account of man's nature which has been gradually developing over the past two thousand years.

Context

Near the end of section I, Dreyfus steps back from historical narration to articulate why AI matters philosophically: it operationalizes and tests a 2,000‑year‑old rationalist, mechanistic picture of human beings.