This text is the transcript — with a little extra elaboration — of John Searle's n  1984 Reith Lecturesn, which consist of six self-contained pieces that stand on their own while contributing to a single purpose: to contrast and describe the relationships between the conception we have of ourselves as rational, free, conscious agents and the conception we have of the world as a collection of mindless, meaningless physical particles.

To do so, Searle presents his points with outstanding clarity; introducing thought experiments — as in Ch. 2 with the now classical Chinese Room argument, to tackle strong AI — and clinical cases to structure in a clear logical progression his premises and conclusions.

A must-read for anyone interested in philosophy of mind and/or the big questions it deals with.