Reading Philosophy

<p>John Searle considers how his view differs from epiphenomenalism, which is the view that minds have no causal power over the body. He argues that such a view is not logically impossible, but believing that it is...

<p>John Searle asks whether consciousness can be reduced to the underlying brain processes. Can we give a complete account of mental phenomena purely in terms biochemical activity? If not, why not?</p><p>You can join...

<p>John Searle argues that we have to start with the facts we know and then we will be able to see how the mind fits in with science and metaphysics: consciousness is the higher level effect of lower level brain...

<p>John Searle considers the incompatibility of dualism and materialism and argues that we should reject both, because they are based on faulty concepts.</p><p>You can join future live sessions at...

<p>John Searle lays out the three basic features that any theory of consciousness must account for. Conscious phenomena are inner, qualitative and ontologically subjective.</p><p>Searle also rejects the idea that...

<p>After considering, and dismissing, various arguments against External Realism, John Searle asks if there is a positive case for it.</p><p>He also considers how religion might factor into these questions of...

<p>John Searle analysis a typical argument for skepticism of the external world. We also discuss naive realism and some aspects of empiricism.</p><p>You can join future live sessions at...

<p>John Searle looks at four arguments against realism (the mind-independent existence of the external world), from perspectivism to underdetermination. He concludes that they are all weak or based on...

<p>John Searle sets out the default positions of reality and truth, namely external realism (there is a mind-independent world) and the correspondence theory of truth.</p><p>He muses about why so many influential...

<p>John Searle tells us how philosophy fits into his project to defend the Enlightenment Vision.</p><p>He sets out a number of Default Positions that, according to him, most humans intuitively hold, like the...

<p>Start of a new book: Mind, Language and Society by John Searle.</p><p>Searle sets out his project, to defend the Enlightenment Vision against various 20th century anti-realist challenges like Freudian psychology...

<p>Thomas Hobbes and Bernard Mandeville believe that we act morally mainly out of self-interest. The only reason I don't break the law is because I don't want to get punished.</p><p>Hume rejects this view in favour of...

<p>David Hume takes on the moral debate of his day. He argues against moral rationalism that 'reason alone can never move us to action'. Instead, the passions are the source of our moral motivations.</p><p>Hume also...

<p>David Hume applies his skeptical method of definition to the ideas 'power' and 'necessary connection'. And he finds, again, that these ideas don't come from observation, but from the workings of our own...

<p>David Hume critiques the Aristotelian notion of causation. We cannot prove causal connections by a priori reasoning. So our causal thinking has to come from somewhere else, namely our nature given...