Some Thoughts on Dreyfus' ``Critique of Artificial Reason''

Dreyfus' two major arguments against an optimistic view on artificial intelligence are: 1) failure of artificial intelligence during the period 1957-1967 to achieve the initial promises, and 2) wrong assumptions underlying the optimistic view on artificial intelligence. It is shown that neither argument is a valid one. His suggestions for alternative views are sometimes interesting, but present nothing essentially new. The reviewer agrees that there are things that the computer cannot do, but most of the author's arguments are illogical or out of place.