Minds, Brains and Science

The text of Searle's 1984 Reith Lectures for the BBC, six short chapters written for a general audience. The first deals with the mind–body problem and sets out the view Searle calls biological naturalism: mental phenomena are caused by processes in the brain and are themselves features of the brain, so there is no need for either dualism or a denial of consciousness. The second, 'Can Computers Think?', gives an accessible version of the Chinese Room argument. A person who follows a rule book to answer questions in Chinese, without understanding a word, would pass for a Chinese speaker; so running a program, which only manipulates symbols by their shape, cannot by itself produce understanding. Syntax is not sufficient for semantics. Later chapters criticise cognitive science's model of the mind as a computer, analyse the structure of intentional action, ask why the social sciences have no laws like physics, and end with the problem of free will, which Searle admits he cannot solve.

It is the shortest and clearest introduction to Searle's views, including the Chinese Room, which remains central to arguments about artificial intelligence.