Preparing for a metaphysics final and came across a few priceless lines from John Searle, who was here a few months back. This is in his Rediscovery of the Mind.
"The most striking feature is how much of mainstream philosophy of mind of the past fifty years seems obviously false. I believe there is no other area of contemporary analytic philosophy where so much is said that is so implausible."
"If we were to think of the philosophy of mind over the past fifty years as a single individual, we would say of that person that he is a compulsive neurotic and his neurosis takes the form of repeating the same pattern of behavior over and over."
"Acceptance of the currents views is motivated not so much by an independent conviction of their truth as by a terror of what are apparently the only alternatives. That is, the choice we are tacitly presented with is between a 'scientific' approach...or some other traditional religious conception of the mind."
Posted by Tim at December 11, 2003 07:57 PM