A Abordagem Filogenética da Mente no Naturalismo Biológico de John Searle

Abstract

The aim of this project was to analyze the philosophical and evolutionary parts that are present in the biological naturalism, a theory proposed by the contemporary philosopher John Rogers Searle, as a solution to the mind-body problem. In a first step, a historical exposition about the main concepts involved in this theoretical project was developed, along with an analysis of Searle's critics of the main strands of the Philosophy of Mind, namely: the substance dualism, the property dualism, the philosophical behaviorism, mind-brain identity theory, functionalism, and eliminative materialism. In the second and third stages, the concepts and implications of the biological naturalism theory were analyzed, with subjectivity as the focus of his theory. At a later stage, we use the distinction drawn by Ernst Mayr between Evolutionary Biology and Functional Biology to defend Searle's commitment to a phylogenetic approach to biological naturalism, thereby sustaining a phylogenetic approach used by the philosopher in developing his theory.