Disillusionment with psychology is leading more and more people to philosophy for clues about how to think about life. But most of us who try to grapple with concepts such as reality, truth, commonsense, consciousness and society lack the means, background and structure to discuss them with any confidence. After disentangling the major questions we face when we try and engage with the world, Searle then focuses on those forces that inhibit that engagement. In a systematic and lucid way, he takes the reader through the conceptual problems associated with metaphysics, the biology of the mind, the paradox of intentionality, the structure of consciousness and the organization of the social universe to present a brilliantly coherent account of what philosophy can -- and cannot do. John Searle stresses throughout this book that there exists a real material world and condemns the belief that the reality of our world depends on our perception of it.