Searle, J. (1997). The Mystery of Consciousness. New York, New York Review Press.[buy book]

The Wall Street Journal, Jim Holt :

For sheer intellectual brio, it would be hard to beat John R. Searle's The Mystery of Consciousness. Mr. Searle, a philosopher at Berkeley, casts a critical eye on recent attempts to solve the mind-body problem--how it is that the lump of gray meat in your skull produces consciousness--by eminent thinkers like Daniel Dennett, Roger Penrose and Francis Crick. Often he gives a clearer account of their ideas than can be found in their own books. With vigorous logic, he teases out the contradictions of dualism, materialism and computer-inspired "artificial intelligence," which denies the very existence of consciousness. For evidence to the contrary, he urges the reader to pinch himself--which is the only thing that might detract from the pleasure of this book.


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