John Searle

The computer is not a mind and it does not think. It is a tool that we use to simulate thinking.

Syntax is not semantics and computation is not understanding.

The Chinese Room argument shows that programming a computer with a program that enables it to simulate understanding is not sufficient to give the computer understanding.

Consciousness is a biological phenomenon, as much a part of our natural biological life as growth, digestion, or the secretion of bile.

The problem of consciousness is not a problem of how to get rid of it, but how to explain it.

Intentionality is that property of many mental states and events by which they are directed at or about objects and states of affairs in the world.

The brain causes consciousness, and consciousness is a feature of the brain.

There is no such thing as a mind-body problem. There is only a brain-body problem.

Language is essentially a social phenomenon.

The basic unit of linguistic communication is not, as has generally been supposed, the symbol, word or sentence, but rather the production or issuance of the symbol or word or sentence in the performance of the speech act.

The world is full of things that are mind-independent, but our access to them is always mind-dependent.

Social facts are facts that depend on human agreement and acceptance.

Money, property, government, marriage, and universities are all examples of social facts.

The distinction between objective and subjective is not a distinction between what exists and what doesn't, but between different modes of existence.

We live in one world, not two. There is no separate mental world.

The problem of free will is not a problem about whether we are determined, but about how we can be free in a determined world.

The notion of a 'self' is not a substance, but a set of capacities and dispositions.

The brain is the organ of consciousness.

The mind is a set of features of the brain.

There is no ghost in the machine.