Anyone who writes books on a variety of topics must eventually feel an urge to write a book explaining how the various topics relate to each other. How does it all hang together? This is such a book. In it I try to explain, at least in summary form, some of my views on mind, language, and society, and to explain how they relate to each other, and how they fit into our overall contemporary conception of the universe. Indeed, my first thought for a subtitle was “How It All Hangs Together.”
I am partly emboldened to undertake such a project by the generous reception given my 1984 Reith Lectures for the BBC,1 published in book form as Minds, Brains, and Science, which was similarly broad in scope. Both books attempt to address a wide range of problems in a way that is accessible to nonspecialists, but without sacrificing intellectual complexity. The earlier book stayed at the levels of the mind and brain. This one tries, so to speak, to climb up the levels from mind to language and social reality generally.
Both books also exemplify a pervasive contemporary trend in philosophy: for a large number of philosophers, the philosophy of mind is now first philosophy. Problems about language, knowledge, ethics, society, free will, rationality, and a large number of other topics are best approached by way of an understanding of mental phenomena. In my hands at least, they are approached by way of an analysis of mind that rejects both dualism and materialism. I set out to write a book about mind, language, and society, and now that it is finished, I discover that a disproportionately large part of it is about the mind. Given the intellectual basis from which the argument proceeds, that emphasis should not be surprising.
I have borrowed shamelessly from my earlier writings. Friends of those works may justifiably feel a sense of deja vu at some of the ideas in this book. I can only say that in order to tell you how it all works together, I have to tell you some of the things I have said before.
Several people have helped in the preparation of this book. I especially want to thank my research assistant, Jennifer Hudin; and most of all, my wife Dagmar Searle, who, as usual, was helpful at every stage. I dedicate this book to her.