Single Idea 3456

[catalogued under 17. Mind and Body / D. Property Dualism / 3. Property Dualism]

Full Idea

Consciousness is a higher-level or emergent property of the brain, but only in the sense that solidity is an emergent property of water when it is ice, and liquidity when it melts.

Gist of Idea

Consciousness is a brain property as liquidity is a water property

Source

John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 1.IV)

Book Reference

Searle,John R.: 'The Rediscovery of the Mind' [MIT 1999], p.14


A Reaction

It is hard to know which side Searle is on. These examples are highly reductive, and make him a thoroughgoing reductive physicalist (with which I agree).