The Context Antinomy
For a machine to understand sentences in a natural language, it must place those sentences in a context. However, because machines use explicit bits of data they run up against an antinomy (described in detailed text).
Hubert Dreyfus, 1972.
The Context Antinomy
Either:
There is a broader context of facts that determines which facts are relevant to a given sentence -- in which case, that context must itself be interpreted, so that we face an infinte regress of broader and broader contexts.
Or:
There is an ultimate context that requires no interpretation -- in which case, we are forced to postulate a set of facts that have fixed relevance, regardless of the situation. But no such facts exist.
In either case:
Explicit data cannot account for the understanding of natural language. Humans avoid this antinomy because they recognize the present situation as a continuation of past situations, and on that basis determine what is relevant to understanding a sentence.