Does the Chinese Room understand Chinese?

Some say yes the chinese room does and others say no, it doesn't.

The 'yes' response is often called the systems response - the room as a whole system does understand chinese whilst the man inside does not.

Searle would have us say the whole system doesn't and may try to internalise the system to the person to try and make this point clearer.

It comes down to intuition and which side you fall on.

Ultimately acting as though you understand and fooling someone into thinking you understand is enough for some to convince that understanding is going on, whilst for others it is more about internal processes than 'acting the part'.

For instance, if you act confident are you really confident - would you yourself say you are confident?

Would the system say it understands chinese or that it is carrying out a complicated set of instructions that emulates chinese?
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