This chapter is largely introductory, explaining what Searle thinks the main problems about the mind might be. Perhaps some of these problems are ones you have thought about before, but many will be unfamiliar, and you will have to work a bit to see why they are problems. During the rest of semester, some of these problems will be talked about but there are too many to try to deal with all of them. Still, by reading this chapter you will get a sense of what the philosophy of mind is about and why it is interesting.
Pages 6 - 8:
Don't worry about all the historical remarks Searle makes here. Try to get a sense of what the issues are that he intends to address in the book. There's a good summary of some of the main questions about 3/4 of the way down on page 7. Notice that our recent discussion of moral responsibility is seen by Searle as directly related to the questions he is raising.
Pages 9 - mid 11:
Try to understand the basics of Descartes' "dualism" as presented by Searle. If you have questions about Descartes' view, write them down and ask about them in class. Deutsch pointed out in class on Tuesday that Searle has left out one important aspect of Descartes' view--namely that we have a special access to our own consciousness that we do not have to the consciousnesses of others. This important point is one that Deutsch agrees with, but Searle simply passes over in silence. Do you think that most people tend to agree with Descartes' picture of what human beings are like--that a human being is composed of two parts, a mind and a body?
Pages 11 - 18:
Here is a list of issues that are raised by Descartes' theory. Searle obviously doesn't think much of Descartes' theory, because he thinks these issues need not have arisen if we had a better theory of how our mental lives work, but you won't understand what Searle is up to if you don't see what he thinks these issues are. Go through each issue, one by one, and see if you "get" it. If you don't, make a note and ask about it in class. By the way, I don't agree with Searle at all about the uselessness of the argument by analogy in dealing with the second problem. Perhaps we will have time to talk about that a bit in class.
Pages 19 - 22:
These are some additional issues in the philosophy of mind that are not directly the result of the picture that Descartes gave us.
The rest of the Chapter completes a quick review of some things Searle thinks Descartes failed to deal with well in handling the questions raised earlier. Searle is anxious to criticize Descartes because in some ways Searle's own position on these issues (later on) will easily be confused with Descartes' ideas, and Searle doesn't want to promote that confusion.
What about Chapters 2 and 3?
Those Chapters right now are left to you to poke around in, if you find something interesting as you page through. We will not have time to talk about those Chapters in class just yet, but if you notice something in them now that you can understand and that interests you, reading parts of those chapters can shed light on the issues we are talking about.