[5]

Surely, however, the contents of mental states can be examined, and theories about them accepted and/or rejected. Indeed, cognitive-developmental studies show that children have to learn which of their experiences are properly to be taken to be of the objective world and which only of their minds (and even adults on occasion make mistakes here). This makes it apparent that there is a sense of ‘observation’ which is prior to and independent of the subjective/objective split, that, on Searle’s account, supposedly makes subjective observation impossible (cf. Shear, 1996).