John Searle Quotes
John Searle is an American philosopher long associated with the University of California, Berkeley, whose work has shaped the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. Speech Acts and Expression and Meaning developed a systematic account of speech-act theory inherited from his teacher J. The quotes below are attributed to John Searle, organized by topic.
John Searle on Knowledge
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“The problem posed by indirect speech acts is the problem of how it is possible for the speaker to say one thing and mean that but also to mean something else.”
Expression and Meaning , p. 31, Cambridge University Press (1979). -
“Expression and Meaning , p. 31, Cambridge University Press (1979).”
The problem posed by indirect speech acts is the problem of how it is possible for the speaker to say one thing and mean that but also to mean something else. -
“The Word Turned Upside Down", The New York Review of Books , Volume 30, Number 16, October 27, 1983.”
It is apparently very congenial for some people who are professionally concerned with fictional texts to be told that all texts are really fictional anyway, and that claims that fiction differs significantly from science and philosophy can be deconstructed as a logocentric prejudice, and it seems positively exhilarating to be told that what we call "reality" is just more textuality. Furthermore, t -
“A statement of the author’s “connection principle.”
The ascription of an unconscious intentional phenomenon to a system implies that the phenomenon is in principle accessible to consciousness. -
“Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.”
The Rediscovery of the Mind , p. 97, MIT Press (1992) ISBN 0-262-69154-X .
John Searle on Life
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“Materialism ends up denying the existence of any irreducible subjective qualitative states of sentience or awareness.”
Consciousness and Language (2002) p. 47.
John Searle on Mind
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Attributed to John Searle:
“Syntax is not sufficient for semantics.”
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Attributed to John Searle:
“There is a difference between simulating a phenomenon and duplicating it.”
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Attributed to John Searle:
“Consciousness is a real biological phenomenon, not an illusion to be explained away.”
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Attributed to John Searle:
“The Chinese Room shows that no formal program, by itself, is enough to constitute understanding.”
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“Is the Brain’s Mind a Computer Program?", Scientific American (January 1990).”
One can imagine a computer simulation of the action of peptides in the hypothalamus that is accurate down to the last synapse. But equally one can imagine a computer simulation of the oxidation of hydrocarbons in a car engine or the action of digestive processes in a stomach when it is digesting pizza. And the simulation is no more the real thing in the case of the brain than it is in the case of -
“The ascription of an unconscious intentional phenomenon to a system implies that the phenomenon is in principle accessible to consciousness.”
A statement of the author’s “connection principle. | Consciousness, Explanatory Inversion, and Cognitive Science," The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13, 4 (December 1990): 585-696. -
“Consciousness, Explanatory Inversion, and Cognitive Science," The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13, 4 (December 1990): 585-696.”
The ascription of an unconscious intentional phenomenon to a system implies that the phenomenon is in principle accessible to consciousness. -
“The Rediscovery of the Mind , p. 97, MIT Press (1992) ISBN 0-262-69154-X .”
Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.
John Searle on Politics
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Attributed to John Searle:
“Money is whatever we collectively count as money.”