Materialism ends up denying the existence of any irreducible subjective qualitative states of sentience or awareness.

The reason that no computer program can ever be a mind is simply that a computer program is only syntactical, and minds are more than syntactical. Minds are semantical, in the sense that they have more than a formal structure, they have a content.

In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.

We often attribute 'understanding' and other cognitive predicates by metaphor and analogy to cars, adding machines, and other artifacts, but nothing is proved by such attributions.

Nowadays nobody bothers, and it is considered in slightly bad taste to even raise the question of God's existence. Matters of religion are like matters of sexual preference: they are not discussed in public, and even the abstract questions are discussed only by bores.

The Intentionality of the mind not only creates the possibility of meaning, but limits its forms.

Where consciousness is concerned, the appearance is the reality.