Mind, Language and Society

The book has six chapters. The first looks at realism - Searle believes that there is a real world out there. This is followed by three chapters on the nature of the mind and consciousness - the biology of the brain, the structure of consciousness, and the nature of intentionality. The penultimate chapter looks at society, and at how social institutions, such as money, get their meaning. The final chapter looks at the particular social institution of language.

I'm not entirely convinced about the way Searle deals with the 'hard' problem of consciousness. His view is that the division into the competing possibilities of materialism/dualism/epiphenomenalism/idealism just isn't the right way to look at it. There may well be something in this, but to me it looks a bit like sidestepping the issue. Searle also seems to be avoiding some of the awkward questions of what it would mean for a machine to be conscious. So I don't agree with everything which Searle has to say, but I did feel that this conscise book does introduce some of the important issues in philosophy, and gives the reader some insightful ideas on how these issues might be dealt with.