Dualism makes the problem insoluble; materialism denies the existence of any phenomenon to study, and hence of any problem.
John SearleAn utterance can have Intentionality, just as a belief has Intentionality, but whereas the Intentionality of the belief is intrinsic the Intentionality of the utterance is derived.
John SearleWhere questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.
John SearleWe do not live in several different, or even two different, worlds, a mental world and a physical world, a scientific world and a world of common sense. Rather, there is just one world; it is the world we all live in, and we need to account for how we exist as part of it.
John SearleMany people mistakenly suppose that the essence of consciousness is that of a control mechanism
John SearleBecause we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard...Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electromagnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill...At present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer.
John Searle