Rating: 
Summary: Sama og 45
Review: This is the first book I read by John R. Searle, and for sure not the last. But I had before read very much about his theories, the Chinese Room Argument etc. His view on the mind-body problem is very interesting, and everything in this book is easy and good to read. Searle appeals to common-sense and does a great job. The Mystery of Consciousness is quite extensive and covers a lot of material - probably the best entrance to the consciousness-debate.I encourage you to read David Chalmers' response to Searle's response to Chalmers response to Searle's review of his book.. it's on the web: Above all... a great book by a great philosopher.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant analyses.
Review: This work is mainly a review of books by Francis Crick, Gerald Edelman, Roger Penrose, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers and Israel Rosenfeld. The reviews are sometimes followed by not so polite exchanges between the authors and the reviewer.
This book is an essential read because it sums up in a nutshell the different ways by which the consciousness problem is tackled today.
More, I believe that prof. Searle's viewpoints that 'consciousness is a natural, biological phenomenon' and that 'the brain causes conscious experiences' are the only scientific approaches with a future.
His critic of the materialistic viewpoints of Chalmers and Dennett are devastating. The mind is not just a computer program.
This book also contains some very interesting comments on the distinction between natural and social sciences, the author's famous Chinese Room Argument, a critic of Gilbert Ryle, a profound comment on Penrose's book (brain processes do not guarantee truth) or Richard Dawkins' memes. All in all, a small, but very clear and important critical book.
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