Topic:	The Mystery of Mind
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Guest:	John Searle, Mills Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language, University of California - Berkeley
What is it?	Modern science tells us that the mind is just the brain working.  But science cannot yet tell us how consciousness, rationality, free will, autonomy, or even our sense of self arises out of the merely material processes of the brain. Could our confidence that mind is just the brain working possibly be misplaced?

About the Guest

John Searle has published numerous books and articles in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language, including his latest Mind: A Brief Introduction (Fundamentals of Philosophy). His full CV is accessible here.

Listening Notes

The brain is just a bunch of neurons and some people say that the mind is the same as the brain. There are two things about minds that are mysterious: thought and experience. To help with these mysteries, Ken introduces the guest, John Searle, professor at Berkeley. Intentionality is the property of the mind that directs it at things in the world. We think and talk about the world all the time. How is this even possible? Is the brain the source of all our conscious states?

There are two general problems: consciousness and intentionality, or subjectivity and aboutness. Searle thinks the two problems are connected. Are feeling pain and being conscious of pain the same thing? Behaviorism tried to explain the mind by saying all conscious states are propensities to some sort of behavior. The computational theory says that all thought is just neurons doing computations and running algorithms.

If thoughts are brain states, shouldn't we be able to see each other's thoughts? Is there a distinction between the mental world and the physical world? How do we align our neuroscientific theories with our everyday experience? Searle points out three views to avoid: extreme materialism, extreme idealism, and dualism. Is the belief that the mind is just the brain damaging to our self-conception? Searle thinks not since the brain is capable of providing all these amazing sensations and experiences.

• Amy Standen the Roving Philosophical Reporter (Seek to 04:19): Amy Standen interviews an Episcopal priest and former scientist about the relation between the brain and the mind.

• Conundrum (Seek to 46:28): Amy from Oregon asks who bears the responsibility for an action when both parties are potentially at blame? Amy did not tightly screw the cap back onto a jug of orange juice. Then, Matt, her fiancé, shook the jug without checking it and orange juice went everywhere. Who is at fault for the spill?

Additional Resources

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

• entry on consciousness

• entry on consciousness and intentionality

• entry on intentionality

• entry on the Chinese room argument

• entry on the computational theory of the mind

• entry on the identity theory of the mind

• entry on behaviorism

• entry on functionalism

• David Chalmers's annotated bibliography of philosophy of mind material

• David Chalmers's collection of online papers about consciousness

• An introduction to the philosophy of the mind

• Psyche, a journal of interdisciplinary research on the mind

• The University of Arizona Center for Consciousness Studies

• A short introduction to the problems associated with the mind

• The Dictionary of the Philosophy of Mind online

• A paper of Searle's giving an overview of the concept of consciousness

• An introductory page on intentionality

• Another introduction to intentionality

• The Wikipedia entry on the philosophy of mind

• Colin McGinn's introduction to the philosophy of mind, The Character of Mind

• A comprehensive collection, The Nature of Mind

• Searle's book The Mystery of Consciousness

• Another one of Searle's book, Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind 

• Susan Blackmore's Consciousness: An Introduction

• Daniel Dennett's Consciousness Explained

• The collection of essays entitled The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates

• Another collection of essays, Consciousness: Philosophical Essays

• Andy Clark's book on the mind, Being There

• Jaegwon Kim's textbook on the philosophy of mind

• Decartes's Meditations, the source of modern dualism

• G.E.M. Anscombe's book on intentionality, Intention

• An anthology of essays on the mind, Mind and Cognition