Now Playing: TBE
Topic: Mind
I'm reading Searle's Problems of Consciousness right now. I skipped ahead last night to his fight with Dennett since I've discussed Dennett on a number of occasions. It's Dennett's view on qualia that is of particular interest to me because it's so unusual. But I just can't take his advice all the way. My rejection of Dennett is more or less the same as Searle's, based on Cartesion certainty. The problem is, I'm not sure I buy into Cartesian certainty.
Descartes' "I think therefore I am" sets out to establish the thinking self. Searle (like I'm tempted to) has sort of reworked Descartes' epistemological statement of certainty into a phenomenal one, "I feel therefore I am." It doesn't matter how mistaken those feelings are as the mistake itself captures the phenomenal.
