John Searle on Consciousness

"Biological naturalism is a monist theory about the relationship between mind and body (i.e. brain), and hence an approach to the mind-body dichotomy. It was first proposed by the philosopher John Searle in 1980 and is defined by two main theses:
1) all mental phenomena from pains, tickles, and itches to the most abstruse thoughts are caused by lower-level neurobiological processes in the brain; and
2) mental phenomena are higher level features of the brain."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_naturalism
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~jsearle/BiologicalNaturalismOct04.doc
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~jsearle/Consciousness1.rtf
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~jsearle/132/PropertydualismFNL.doc

"John Rogers Searle is an American philosopher and presently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Building upon his views upon Intentionality, Searle presented a view concerning consciousness in his book The Rediscovery of the Mind (1992). He argues that, starting with behaviorism ... much of modern philosophy has tried to deny the existence of consciousness, with little success. In Intentionality, he parodies several alternative theories of consciousness by replacing their accounts of intentionality with comparable accounts of the hand:

Searle argues that philosophy has been trapped by a false dichotomy: that on the one hand, the world consists of nothing but objective particles in fields of force, but that yet, on the other hand, consciousness is clearly a subjective first-person experience. Dualists deny the first, but our current knowledge of physics makes their position seem increasingly unlikely, so philosophy, starting with behaviorists, has denied the second. But denying the second has led to endless problems and thus to endless revisions of behaviorism (with functionalism being the one currently in vogue).

Searle says simply that both are true: consciousness is a real subjective experience, caused by the physical processes of the brain. (A view which he suggests might be called biological naturalism.)"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Searle

John Searle interviewed about the Mary argument:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERtHFw_fw9Y

Closer to Truth PBS
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/closertotruth/#
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/closertotruth/resources/index.html

This is a mirror of a video that was originally uploaded by LennyBound. Because his channel has two strikes, he has suggested that his videos be mirrored because he is concerned that his videos might be lost if his channel suffers another hit.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LennyBound

"In this clip, philosopher John Searle discusses his approach to the mind-body problem known as "biological naturalism." Searle believes that neither dualism nor materialism can adequately account for consciousness, but that the mind can still be studied as a purely biological phenomena."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Consciousness
• Philosophy
• of
• Mind
• Reductionism
• Mind-Body
• Problem
• Biological
• Naturalism
• Ontological
• Subjectivity
• Freewill
• John
• Searly
• LennyBound
• mirror

[dewinthemorning]

Yes, you needed to add some antidote to the dualistic swill.

[EvolvedAtheist]

The pro-dualism crowd have been adding some hilarious comments in response to my obvious rejection of dualism.

[petemh]

This is the most sense I have heard in my quest to understand consciousness.

[EvolvedAtheist]

I plan to!

[dewinthemorning]

Oh, yes, the double D! "Consciousness Explained". Do more than one with him.

[EvolvedAtheist]

Think of an eminently sensible, atheistic philosopher who looks like Santa!

[dewinthemorning]

Can't guess. Whisper it in my ear.:)

[EvolvedAtheist]

Guess who's next ;D

[EvolvedAtheist]

You might have noticed -- after uploading Plantinga's wishful thinking, I have tried to add increasingly rational approaches to the problem of deciphering the mechanisms of consciousness.

[dewinthemorning]

2:33, "We have to think of consciousness as a biological phenomenon." Exactly!

And "The brain is a tough nut to crack." With the development of science it will be cracked. (Not literally, I hope, LOL)

This is so good, I have to fave' it. :)