Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle) / quote 86 of 138
Neither dualism nor materialism is acceptable
We end this chapter in a depressing intellectual state: neither dualism nor materialism is acceptable and yet they are presented to us as the only possibilities. Furthermore we know independently that both what dualism is trying to say and what materialism is trying to say are true. Materialism is trying to say that the world consists entirely of physical particles in fields of force. Dualism is trying to say that there are irreducible and ineliminable mental features to the world, consciousness and intentionality, in particular. But if both views are true, there must be a way of stating them that renders them consistent.