Honest to John's Philosophy of Mind

I discovered some time ago an immense treasure trove of knowledge available on-line for free--the iTune [Virtual] University. Like Google's Gutenberg Project which makes available without charge a huge collection of copyright-expired books in digital format, iTune U provides podcasts or recordings of actual classroom instructions from various colleges and universities of various subjects which anybody (with Internet service) can subscribe to and listen to remotely (both in space and time) like a fly on the wall. What a democratizing service this can provide, in terms of disseminating knowledge and raising the general standard of education, if only more people take advantage of it! In addition, it also serves to preserve an oral record, as it happens, of our intellectual history for future generations.

While browsing what's being offered at iTune U, I stumbled on some philosophy courses given by John Searle, I almost want to say, Sir John Searle, at UC Berkeley-- the same guy, in case you don't know, who taught there when Kirk was a graduate student almost thirty years ago. (Incidentally, don't believe everything written on the Wikipedia about Searle, especially on his philosophical views, as, according to him, a lot of it is incorrect.)  He is a famous professor of philosophy for many reasons, not the least of which is his teaching persona--brassy, John Wayne style in his self-assuredness, and very entertaining, almost vaudeville-like, I imagine, as he has been doing these routines for upward 50+ years.

I started listening to his spring 2010 lectures on Philosophy of Mind (132) on and off for some time now and I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed listening to them.  For my non-philosopher readers, if you ever wonder what they teach in undergraduate philosophy courses, you can't find a better specimen than Searle's.  Here is a recording of one of the same lectures he gave in 2011 in its entirety -

But I have to admit that I do not listen to these lectures with a hundred percent attention. Instead, I listen to them when I want to keep my mind from dwelling on what I may be doing at the time--mindless activities such as cleaning the house, or running on the treadmill or on the road. The grumpy mood that never fails to surge up in me when doing chores seems to vanish completely while my mind is trying its utmost to follow and understand what is being said. Time seems to elapse imperceptibly and more pleasantly in the interval. Last Sunday I managed to listen to three of his one-hour long lectures while doing my bi-weekly house cleaning.

I do not mean, of course, that I was able to keep up with all that was said in the class, but I do get the gist of each lecture and have some idea about the main issues in the Philosophy of Mind, the key figures in the said philosophical tradition, and, most importantly, how they are all wrong-headed, at least, according to John.

What follows are two videos on YouTube of Searle being interviewed, one considerably younger than the other; there are quite a few videos available on YouTube should you want to learn more about him -