This anthology investigates how Searle's philosophy and Chinese philosophy can jointly contribute to the common philosophical enterprise and shows how such comparative methodology of constructive engagement is important in philosophical inquiry. Searle contributes his keynote essay and his engaging replies to the other contributions.

This volume investigates how, through critical engagement, the philosophy of John Searle in the Western analytic tradition and some thoughts and strands in Chinese philosophy can jointly contribute to the common philosophical enterprise and shows how such comparative methodology of constructive engagement is important or even indispensable in philosophical inquiry. The anthology includes Searle's keynote essay and 15 engaging pairs of essay-reply dialogues, each of which consists of one previously unpublished essay by some expert(s) and Searle's engaging reply, and which are organized into four subjects respectively on mind, language, morality, and meta-philosophical & methodological issues. The anthology also includes the volume editor’s theme introduction on the constructive-engagement movement in view of Searle’s philosophy and Chinese philosophy. Contributors include: Robert E. Allinson, Chung-ying Cheng, Kim-chong Chong, Chris Fraser, Yiu-ming Fung, Soraj Hongladarom, Joel W. Krueger, B. Jeannie Lum, Aloysius P. Martinich, Bo Mou, Anh Tuan Nuyen, John R. Searle, Avrum Stroll, Marshall D. Willman, Kai-yee Wong, and Yujian Zheng.

Featuring 19 specially written essays by leading scientists and philosophers, this volume is a state-of-the-art work on the foundations of cognitive science.

Minds, Brains and Science takes up just the problems that perplex people, and it does what good philosophy always does: it dispels the illusion caused by the specious collision of truths. How do we reconcile common sense and science? John Searle argues vigorously that the truths of common sense and the truths of science are both right and that the only question is how to fit them together. Searle explains how we can reconcile an intuitive view of ourselves as conscious, free, rational agents with a universe that science tells us consists of mindless physical particles. He briskly and lucidly sets out his arguments against the familiar positions in the philosophy of mind, and details the consequences of his ideas for the mind-body problem, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, questions of action and free will, and the philosophy of the social sciences.

It has long been one of the most fundamental problems of philosophy, and it is now, John Searle writes, "the most important problem in the biological sciences": What is consciousness? Is my inner awareness of myself something separate from my body? In what began as a series of essays in The New York Review of Books, John Searle evaluates the positions on consciousness of such well-known scientists and philosophers as Francis Crick, Gerald Edelman, Roger Penrose, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, and Israel Rosenfield. He challenges claims that the mind works like a computer, and that brain functions can be reproduced by computer programs. With a sharp eye for confusion and contradiction, he points out which avenues of current research are most likely to come up with a biological examination of how conscious states are caused by the brain. Only when we understand how the brain works will we solve the mystery of consciousness, and only then will we begin to understand issues ranging from artificial intelligence to our very nature as human beings.

A concise alphabetic guide to the main concepts,figures, topics and important movements of thought that have shaped Chinesephilosophy over the last three thousand years. The entries are conciselywritten, terms are cross-referenced and transcriptions are typically givenin the pinyin system. Chinese Philosophy A-Z stresses philosophicalrelevance in choosing entries while paying due attention to historical linksbetween relevant ideas and movements of thought. The volume also shows howsome of the central ideas under discussion contribute to the philosophicalenterprise as a whole. The book is aimed at students, teachers ofphilosophy, and educated non-specialists who are interested in Chinesephilosophy, particularly those readers new to Chinese philosophy.

John R. Searle has made profoundly influential contributions to three areas of philosophy: philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and philosophy of society. This volume gathers together in accessible form a selection of his essays in these areas. They range widely across social ontology, where Searle presents concise and informative statements of positions developed in more detail elsewhere; artificial intelligence and cognitive science, where Searle assesses the current state of the debate and develops his most recent thoughts; and philosophy of language, where Searle connects ideas from various strands of his work in order to develop original answers to fundamental questions. There are also explorations of the limitations of phenomenological inquiry, the mind-body problem, and the nature and future of philosophy. This rich collection from one of America's leading contemporary philosophers will be valuable for all who are interested in these central philosophical questions.