Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle) / quote 4 of 138
Dualists and materialists make the same mistake
People who accept the reality and irreducibility of the mental tend to think of themselves as dualists. But to others, accepting an irreducible mental component in reality seems like giving up on the scientific world-view, so they deny the existence of any such mental reality. They think it can all be reduced to the material or eliminated altogether. They tend to think of themselves as materialists. I think both sides are making the same mistake. I am going to try to overcome the vocabulary and the assumptions, and in so doing I am going to try to solve or dissolve the traditional problems. But once we do that, the subject, the philosophy of mind, does not end: it gets more interesting. And this is my second reason for wanting to write this book.