John Searle Interview on Perception and Philosophy of Mind

One of America’s most prominent philosophers says his field has been tilting at windmills for nearly 400 years. Representationalism (or indirect realism)---the idea that we don’t directly perceive external objects in the world, but only our own inner mental images or representations of objects---has bedeviled philosophy ever since Descartes, and now is mucking up neuroscience as well, John Searle alleges. He has long defended the “naive” alternative that our senses do actually give us direct access to external reality, and he fires his latest salvo in his new book “Seeing Things as They Are: A Theory of Perception”. John is well-known for his no nonsense approach to philosophical problems, and there was plenty of straight talk here as he discussed his theory of perception, the subjective-objective divide, the scientific study of consciousness, and his dog Tarski. This interview was given a few years back by Robert Pollie which I quite like from a podcast called the 7th Avenue Project: www.7thavenueproject.com.#philosophy #epistemology #philosophyofmind #perception #consciousness #skepticism #mind Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices