Rationality in Action (Jean Nicod Lectures)

In this progressively and amazing treatment of the topic, Searle just goes ahead and displays a thorough analysis on the internal workings of the mind related to rationality. Advancing consistently and clearly through the topics involved in rationality, the book covers a wide range of practical, philosophical and scientific approaches to explain and review the process of conscious rationality of the human brain.The notion of the self, the workings on deliberation, the creation and recognition of reasons for actions, the acquisition of motivators and the intentionality behind all this process, clears the way for understanding one of the most precious capacities of the human brain, shortly to be able to rationally understand ourselves and others.I truly recommend reading this book in order to enhance our capacity to cope with reality and to acknowledge the workings of the mind as a resulting/emerging feature of the human brain.Once again, Searle manages to show us a different point of view much more realistic and complete that clearly states our experience and first person point of view.

Searle is captivating, and interesting. You can't get enough! He makes philosophy understandable, he ideals are refreshing and his delivery is unique.

Well, here we go again. Back to the proverbial rationality and free will drawing board. I recommend a slew of preliminary texts as an overview of the field, such as Williams, Scheffler, Korsgaard, Scanlon, Velleman, Nozick, etc.Nevertheless, Searle writes with his usual clear, direct, and economic prose. He enters a crowded practical reason debate with, again, his usual bravado. He argues against Williams's externalist view by describing substantial tautological errors. But this approach tends to oversimplify Williams's complex view. One wonders if Searle's reading of Williams is actually right (or careful enough). I prefer Scanlon's handling of W's externalism in the Appendix to What We Owe to Each Other, and McDowell's well-known article on the subject.The strength of Searle's book is his defense of an internalist view of rationality and action, which resurrects his views on intentionality and speech acts. He thoroughly demonstrates in one chapter how a Deductive Model in rationality (i.e., a practical syllogism ala Kenny) cannot work. He also clearly identifies the major problems in practical reason, conflicting reasons, and defends a novel approach, what he calls a semantic categorical imperative. This is a controversial view, which navigates between (or circumvents) Humean and Kantian theories on moral motivation.Another stregth of the book is how Searle connects rationality in action (hence the title of the book) and his theory of intentionality to the free will problem. In the last chapters, he clearly identifies just what the nature of the free will problem is, which is pretty much a rehashing of his chapter in Minds, Brains, and Science (Harvard UP). The reader gets a clear picture of how and why the free will issue is a major contemporary philosophical problem, requiring a correct scientific research project to help solve the problem. One also gets a clear view of a top-notch philosopher at work on this serious problem. It is obvious why this problem has kept Searle awake at nights--why he misses the freeway on-ramp during his drive to work. It is a seemingly insoluable problem, and Searle makes the nature of the problem and the reasons that it keeps philosophers awake at night explicit.So the book closes, basically, with a challenge for philosophers to continue work on free will and rationality. It is also a challenge for scientists in the labs to work on a research program that would identify the whole problem and its potential solution.

Searle always writes so nonspecialist can follow his train of thought without skimping on interllectual rigour

This is a hard subject. Searle does a good job, but I found that i forgot many of his points after I completed the book, because it is a difficult subject.