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Abstract
There are still many anthropomorphizing misunderstandings about what it means for a machine to be intelligent. In searching for common ground between human and artificial thinking processes, I suggest reconsidering how human intelligence can be conceived in mechanistic terms. To do this, I take a closer look at the notion of the spiritual automaton of the 17th century philosopher Baruch de Spinoza. In his writings, a mechanical theory of the mind can be found, before the comparison between minds and machines even arises. In a second step I sketch some ways in which current methods in AI studies could be seen to reflect aspects of the Spinozistic model of the mind