Publication: John Searle'ün bilinç teorisi
Abstract
Bilinç sorunu, binlerce yıldan bu yana felsefî düşüncenin temel meselelerinden biri olmuştur. Sorunun en önemli kısmı basitçe şöyle ifade edilebilir: Öznel niteliksel bilinçli durumlar, beyin süreçleri tarafından tam olarak nasıl ortaya çıkarılır ve beyinde nasıl gerçekleşir? Bu konuda bugüne kadar ileri sürülen çözüm önerileri ise, ya “fiziksel” ve “zihinsel” şeklinde ontolojik olarak birbirinden tamamen ayrı iki alan bulunduğunu varsayan ikici ya da yalnızca “fiziksel” şeylerin var olduğunu savunan maddeci yaklaşımların içinde yer almışlardır. Fakat hem ikicilik hem de maddecilik, söz konusu sorunu çözmekte yetersiz kalmıştır. Bu çalışma, Amerikalı filozof John Searle’ün Biyolojik Doğalcılık olarak adlandırdığı, indirgemeci olmayan doğalcı bilinç teorisini konu edinmektedir. Biyolojik Doğalcılığı temel iddiaları ve çözüm önerileriyle inceleyen bu tezin amacı, bilim, felsefe ve gerçeklikle ilgili esas kabullerini de göz önüne alarak, Searle’ün, ontolojik niteliklerini dışarıda bırakmayacak şekilde bilinci fiziksel bir dünya anlayışı içine nasıl yerleştirdiğini analiz etmektir. Tezde, genel hatlarıyla bilinç sorununun çerçevesi çizilerek, Searle’ün ontolojiyi temel alan bilim ile felsefe yaklaşımı ele alınmış ve bilinç teorisinin bütüncül bir değerlendirmesi yapılmaya çalışılmıştır. John Searle, Biyolojik Doğalcılık, Zihin-Beden Problemi.
The problem of consciousness has been the subject of philosophical reflection for thousands of years. The central part of the problem can be stated simply as follows: How exactly are subjective qualitative conscious states caused by brain processes and how are they realized in the brain? The solutions which has been asserted till now are either dualism which presupposes that there are two ontological realms which are totally distinct from each other as “physical” and “mental”, or materialism which claims that there are only physical things. However, neither dualism, nor materialism are sufficient to solve this problems. The main discussion of this work is about American philosopher John Searle’s naturalistic and non-reductive theory of consciousness, which he called Biological Naturalism. The present study aims to analyse the basic assertions and solutions of Biological Naturalism, considering its main hypothesis on science, philosophy and reality, and how Searle analyses consciousness in the physical world without excluding its ontological features. It focuses on Searle’s science and philosophy, which are based on ontology, tries to make holistic evaluation of the theory of consciousness, and maps out general framework of the problems of consciousness. KEY WORDS: Consciousness, John Searle, Biological Naturalism, Mind-Body Problem
The problem of consciousness has been the subject of philosophical reflection for thousands of years. The central part of the problem can be stated simply as follows: How exactly are subjective qualitative conscious states caused by brain processes and how are they realized in the brain? The solutions which has been asserted till now are either dualism which presupposes that there are two ontological realms which are totally distinct from each other as “physical” and “mental”, or materialism which claims that there are only physical things. However, neither dualism, nor materialism are sufficient to solve this problems. The main discussion of this work is about American philosopher John Searle’s naturalistic and non-reductive theory of consciousness, which he called Biological Naturalism. The present study aims to analyse the basic assertions and solutions of Biological Naturalism, considering its main hypothesis on science, philosophy and reality, and how Searle analyses consciousness in the physical world without excluding its ontological features. It focuses on Searle’s science and philosophy, which are based on ontology, tries to make holistic evaluation of the theory of consciousness, and maps out general framework of the problems of consciousness. KEY WORDS: Consciousness, John Searle, Biological Naturalism, Mind-Body Problem