Mind, Language And Society - Hardcover

Searle, Prof John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297643002 ISBN 13: 9780297643005

Publisher: W&N, 1999

Synopsis

Disillusionment with psychology is leading more and more people to philosophy for clues about how to think about life. But most of us who try to grapple with concepts such as reality, truth, commonsense, consciousness and society lack the means, background and structure to discuss them with any confidence. After disentangling the major questions we face when we try and engage with the world, Searle then focuses on those forces that inhibit that engagement. In a systematic and lucid way, he takes the reader through the conceptual problems associated with metaphysics, the biology of the mind, the paradox of intentionality, the structure of consciousness and the organization of the social universe to present a brilliantly coherent account of what philosophy can -- and cannot do. John Searle stresses throughout this book that there exists a real material world and condemns the belief that the reality of our world depends on our perception of it.

About this title

Product Description

FIRST EDITION 1998

Review

John Searle's summation of earlier writings is not just an essential tie-up volume for existing readers; it is also a perfect introduction to the work of one of the clearest heads in the philosophy of mind. Searle's book is a riposte to all those academics who make a career out of contradicting and complicating such default positions as the existence of an external reality, the reality of personal consciousness and the reasonable fit of language to the perceived world. Certainly, we should examine these positions! But the first duty of philosophy, Searle argues, is that it should attempt to accommodate what is known. As far as we can tell, for example, consciousness is a biological product, but there is a long-running contention between the materialists--whose reductive descriptions of consciousness arrive, finally, at an embarrassed denial that consciousness exists at all--and the dualists, who cannot describe consciousness without evoking some supernatural involvement. Neither position is tenable--each position offers some corrective to the other. The good explanation is in there somewhere, but the sheer intractability of the debate won't let it be expressed. In situations like this, Searle argues, it is always the terms that are wrong. Terms, mind you, that in this case include "matter", "mind", "physical" and "mental"! Searle, married as he is to common sense, is, of necessity, one of our most iconoclastic and creative thinkers. --Simon Ings

About this edition

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0297643002
• ISBN 13: 9780297643005
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 173