Publication Details

Abstract

The paper questions the consistency of Searle’s explanation of mental phenomena as caused by and realized in the brain structure. The author reveals the controversy between Searle’s conception of consciousness based on causal reduction of mental phenomena and the conception of intentionality, which conceives of the consciousness along with other mental phenomena as irreducible qualities of physical reality. She sees Searle’s argumentation, according to which 1. mind (consciousness) is an attribute of the brain, similarly to liquidity being an attribute of water, and 2. mind (consciousness) is irreducible - as showed by our „pragmatic reasons“, as superficial and unsustainable. Therefore, she rejects also Searle’s intention to show, that no ontological reduction is implied by the causal reduction of consciousness. In the long run, „biological naturalism“ ends in reductionism as well, explaining consciousness as an biological attribute of the brain.