Philosophical Catfight!

Here is an interesting/ ridiculous/ hilarious correspondance between Daniel Dennett and John Searle that took place in the pages of the New York Review of Books in December, 1995, entitled (ironically, I wish) "The Mystery of Consciousness". The main point that seems to be under debate here is whether or not consciousness exists, with a secondary topic being the abilty for science to reach a level of objectivity. Dennett doesn't actually get a chance to lay out his position here, as he instead submits a short, angry rant against Searle. However, the most interesting part of this debate, for me, is that it shows how, even today, philosophers are still depending upon a very old, inadequate language and a system of imaginary oppositions. (i.e., appearance/ reality, subjective/ objective, mind/ body, etc.) Searle even studied under J.L. Austin at Oxford in the 50's, but "seems" (as I am unsure, because I'm not a Searle scholar) to have latched onto to Austin's theory of Speech Acts, and to have missed Austin's broader point about the myriad uses of language.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1680