Searle's"Dualism Revisited"

Journal Article · Thu Nov 20 04:00:00 EST 2008 · Journal of Physiology-Paris

OSTI ID:943975

P, Henry

A recent article in which John Searle claims to refute dualism is examined from a scientific perspective. John Searle begins his recent article 'Dualism Revisited' by stating his belief that the philosophical problem of consciousness has a scientific solution. He then claims to refute dualism. It is therefore appropriate to examine his arguments against dualism from a scientific perspective. Scientific physical theories contain two kinds of descriptions: (1) Descriptions of our empirical findings, expressed in an every-day language that allows us communicate to each other our sensory experiences pertaining to what we have done and what we have learned; and (2) Descriptions of a theoretical model, expressed in a mathematical language that allows us to communicate to each other certain ideas that exist in our mathematical imaginations, and that are believed to represent, within our streams of consciousness, certain aspects of reality that we deem to exist independently of their being perceived by any human observer. These two parts of our scientific description correspond to the two aspects of our general contemporary dualistic understanding of the total reality in which we are imbedded, namely the empirical-mental aspect and the theoretical-physical aspect. The duality question is whether this general dualistic understanding of ourselves should be regarded as false in some important philosophical or scientific sense.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: Physics Division
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 943975
• Report Number(s): LBNL-1237E
• Journal Information: Journal of Physiology-Paris, Journal Name: Journal of Physiology-Paris
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BEHAVIOR
BRAIN
Dualism
consciousness
neuroscience
quantum mechanics
HUMAN FACTORS
MAN