Consciousness and Reality.

The Maverick Philosopher, who may be joining the BFL, has a lengthy post on John Searle's "Chinese Room" thought-experiment. I recommend the post for two reasons:

(a) it is absolutely amazing that the majority position in philosophy is that we humans are simply fooling ourselves about our mental states. Daniel Dennett, who has quite the reputation in the mainstream media, is on record in a debate with Searle as saying that he believes humans are akin to zombies who are going through the motions of appearing to respond freely to stimuli. But that's what you get when you try to reduce all things human to mere cause and effect, like pinballs and planets.

(b) The last time I tried to explain Dennett's position on my own, I got hooted at. It was in a bar and a group of moderately intoxicated folks thought that Dennett's position was just "nuts." Which, I guess, goes to show the disparity in wisdom between academic philosophers and the beer drinking average man.