Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea

Philosophically the most serious book of the symbolic AI era.

Haugeland coined the term "GOFAI" — Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence — and gave the clearest account of what the symbolic programme actually claimed: that intelligence is formal symbol manipulation, and that a physical symbol system is both necessary and sufficient for general intelligent action.

The book is not a dismissal but a rigorous, sympathetic exposition followed by an equally rigorous examination of where the framework breaks down.

For understanding the philosophical commitments that shaped AI's first decades — and that still echo in debates about LLMs and reasoning — Haugeland remains essential.