John Searle on the Nature of Mind

David Papineau:

John Searle has been around for a long time. His first significant philosophy paper was published in Mind in 1958. Since then he has produced over a dozen books and about 200 articles. And here he is again, after nearly fifty years, with yet another book displaying his familiar no-nonsense approach to the central problems of philosophy..

[His latest] book offers a good introduction to [his] recent work. One of the lectures is on free will, the other on political power, and together they develop his ideas about mind and society, two topics that have dominated his writing over the past couple of decades. In addition, the lectures are prefaced by a long introductory chapter explaining how these concerns relate to Searle’s overall philosophical programme of finding a place for humanity within the world described by basic science...

related: a podcast of John Searle's enjoyable appearance on Standford U's Philosophy Talk radio show: The Mystery of Mind