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Topic: John Searle

	The Rediscovery of the Mind, by John R. Searle
		John Searle is an analytic philosopher, with some of the same notions as the positivists and behaviorists who rejected consciousness and "lost" the mind in the first place, but he also does not sound like the kind of reductionist who would have joined that crowd.
		Searle is content with "the obvious facts of physics," but the fact is that science simply cannot deal with the truths of being and value, of metaphysics and ethics, since an empirical (observational, experimental) method bears with it an externalist bias.
		Searle's desire to distinguish spontaneous mental acts from reflective ones can be well taken, but he seems to overlook some of the familiar and common sense reasons why the two got confused in the first place.
	www.friesian.com /searle.htm (5613 words)

	Spartanburg SC \| GoUpstate.com \| Spartanburg Herald-Journal (Site not responding. Last check: )
		John Rogers Searle (born July 31 1932 in Denver, Colorado) is the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and consciousness, on the characteristics of socially constructed versus physical realities, and on practical reason.
		Searle opposes both dualism and reductionism in favor of a position he calls "biological naturalism." This view characterizes consciousness as an emergent phenomenon of the organism that is an entirely physical property (analogous to the way the pressure of gas in a container is an emergent property of many gas molecules colliding).
		Searle thinks his proposed senses of 'objective/subjective' are crucial to neurology: "The fact that many people have back pains, for example, is an objective fact of medical science...but the mode of existence of these pains is subjective".
	www.goupstate.com /apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS&template=wiki&text=John_Searle (2368 words)

	John Searle
		Born in Denver, Colorado in 1932, John Searle is a Mills Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley.
		Nonetheless, Searle thinks that his view respects the intuitions of dualism by preserving the distinctive ontology of subjective experience, without introducing distinct substances, and that he respects the intuitions of materialism by both retaining its monism and its causal thesis.
		Searle says this situation simulates the operations of a computer, since it is merely a set of rules that, given enough complexity, are able to imitate, but not replicate, true intelligence.
	www.iscid.org /encyclopedia/John_Searle (465 words)

	John Searle - Cambridge University Press
		From his groundbreaking book Speech Acts to his most recent studies of consciousness, freedom and rationality John Searle has been a dominant and highly influential figure amongst contemporary philosophers.
		This systematic introduction to the full range of Searle’s work begins with the theory of speech acts and proceeds with expositions of Searle’s writings on intentionality, consciousness and perception, as well as a careful presentation of the so-called Chinese Room argument.
		John Searle: from speech acts to social reality Barry Smith; 2.
	www.cambridge.org /uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521797047 (295 words)

	Review of John Searle's book, The Construction of Social Reality
		John Searle is a well-known American philosopher, at the Univ. of Calif, Berkeley.
		Searle thinks of the social facts as a kind of overlay, existing, "so to speak, on top of brute physical facts"(p.35).
		Searle defends his Realism in two ways, first by examining the main arguments of those who attack Realism and showing what he believes to be various logical flaws which rob those arguments of any force.
	www.california.com /~rathbone/searles.htm (1230 words)

	Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind - Searle, John
		Searle also analyzes intentional states in terms of their directions of fit (which can be world-to-mind, mind-to-world, or null) and directions of causation (which can be mind-to-world or world-to-mind).
		Searle further argues that if consciousness is to be considered a feature or effect of brain processes, we must be clear to understand that it is not an effect separate from and posterior to the brain processes causing it.
		Searle is careful to point out that while it appears to be the case that certain brain functions are be sufficient for producing conscious states, our current state of neurobiological knowledge prevents us from concluding that they are necessary for producing consciousness.
	philosophy.uwaterloo.ca /MindDict/searle.html (910 words)

	Shoes-John Searle -Philosophy Now-
		John Searle is part of the Philosophy Now series, published by Princeton University Press, which offers engaging looks at some of today's most prominent philosophers.
		Searle first appeared on the philosophical scene in 1969 with the publication of his seminal Speech Acts, which detailed a new theory of how language has meaning.
		John Searle's summation of earlier writings is not just an essential tie-up volume for existing readers; it is also a perfect introduction to the work of one of the clearest heads in the philosophy of mind.
	www.minihttpserver.net /z_book/A_the_collapse_of_the_-0674013808.htm (721 words)

	Reason Magazine - Reality Principles: An Interview with John R. Searle
		Second, Searle believes that the world is in fact real, not a mere construct of texts and word games, and that we can understand that real world--a position known as "metaphysical realism." He is famous as a vocal and vigorous defender of reason, objectivity, and intellectual standards within the academy.
		Searle was interviewed in his Berkeley office in November by Edward Feser (star3brn@1stnetusa.com), who teaches philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and Steven Postrel, an economist who teaches business strategy at the University of California, Irvine.
		Searle's arm was in a sling--he broke it in a household accident he finds particularly embarrassing to discuss given his fracture-free years as an avid skier--and his office was a bustle of activity, with research assistants and students coming and going.
	www.reason.com /news/show/27599.html (5231 words)

	John Searle
		John Searle is Mills Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is noted for contributions in the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and consciousness, and on the characteristics of socially constructed versus physical realities.
		Searle's early works built on the efforts of his teachers, J. Austin and P.
		Searle describes how the various illocutionary forces of a sentence can be described as obeying various rules.
	www.teachersparadise.com /ency/en/wikipedia/j/jo/john_searle.html (325 words)

	The Problem with John Searle's Mind
		Searle’s position is that he professes to strongly disagrees with dualism, also differs with materialism, entirely dismisses the notion of idealism, and thus attempts to stand outside conventional perspectives and break new ground.
		Searle does insist that the mind is not material nor reduceable to matter, but he does think the very existence of mind is attributable to matter.
		Searle draws some solace from his belief that the mind is created by the brain and therefore is dependent upon the realm of physical phenomena.
	journal.ilovephilosophy.com /Article/The-Problem-with-John-Searle-s-Mind/134 (2500 words)

	John Searle's "Chinese Room Argument" (Site not responding. Last check: )
		It should be conceded that Searle's argument is effective in showing that certain kinds of machines -- even machines that pass the Turing Test -- are not necessarily intelligent and do not necessarily "understand" the words that they speak.
		Searle believes that this new thought experiment defeats those who think that a causal connection between a physical pig and 'pig'-utternaces is sufficient for "understanding a language." But why does he think so?
		Searle in the room is the one who "processed" the information.
	www.mind.ilstu.edu /~dlanders/misc/searle/chinese_robot.html (1761 words)

	Chinese Room Argument [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
		Searle responds, in effect, that since none of these replies, taken alone, has any tendency to overthrow his thought experimental result, neither do all of them taken together: zero times three is naught.
		Beginning with objections published along with Searle's original (1980a) presentation, opinions have drastically divided, not only about whether the Chinese room argument is cogent; but, among those who think it is, as to why it is; and, among those who think it is not, as to why not.
		Searle's own hypothesis of Biological Naturalism may be characterized sympathetically as an attempt to wed - or unsympathetically as an attempt to waffle between - the remaining dualistic and identity-theoretic alternatives.
	www.utm.edu /research/iep/c/chineser.htm (3035 words)

	John Searle
		John Searle is Mills Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is noted for contributions in the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and consciousness, and on the characteristics of socially constructed versus physical realities.
		Searle's early works built on the efforts of his teachers, J. Austin and P.
		Searle describes how the various illocutionary forces of a sentence can be described as obeying various rules.
	www.usapedia.com /j/john-searle.html (304 words)

	Q&A John Searle - The Boston Globe
		Searle's forte in these battles and in his 16 books, including his new "Freedom and Neurobiology: Reflections on Free Will, Language, and Political Power" (Columbia), is his determination to see how science reformulates traditional questions of philosophy.
		SEARLE: The question of how it is possible for consciousness to exist in a world made entirely of physical particles is being transformed into a scientific question, much like any other.
		SEARLE: The brain is a machine, which by means of energy transfers causes and sustains consciousness.
	www.boston.com /news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/02/04/qa_john_searle/?page=full (1191 words)

	Kenan Malik's review of 'Language, Mind and Society' by John Searle
		Searle places himself firmly in the Enlightenment tradition which 'assumes that the universe is completely understandable and that we are capable of a systematic understanding of its nature.' But, he insists, understanding objective reality requires an understanding of the reality of subjective thoughts and feelings.
		Searle was going to subtitle the book 'How it all hangs together', which would have been a perfect description of his project.
		Searle argues that consciousness is caused by brain processes but is itself a 'high-level' feature of the brain.
	www.kenanmalik.com /reviews/searle_mind.html (1038 words)

	DNK Amazon Store :: Mind, Language, and Society : Philosophy in the Real World
		Searle's book is a riposte to all those academics who make a career out of contradicting and complicating such default positions as the existence of an external reality, the reality of personal consciousness, and the reasonable fit of language to the perceived world.
		Ultimately, the value of John Searle as a philosopher is not in any arguments he comes up with, but in the fact that his intuitions are extremely good--he almost always comes down on the right side of the fence.
		And while Searle claims to be an expert at characterizing what it is to be conscious, I have a hard time taking any of his "analysis" seriously, since he surely can't explain to me what it's like to be unconscious.
	www.entertainmentcareers.net /book/ProductDetails.aspx?asin=0465045219 (1534 words)

	Book review of John Searle (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Consciousness is one more time at center stage, and Searle repeats his mantra: consciousness cannot be reduced to the neurophysiological processes that cause it, but it is a biological feature of the brain.
		For reasons that are not completely clear, Searle decides that it is not just a fact of today's neurophysiology (likely to change with time), but that this will always be the case, that it is impossible to provide a material explanation of the features of consciousness.
		Searle thus ends up contradicting himself and admitting a crucial difference between consciousness and electricity or liquidity or digestion: consciousness is special in that it cannot be explained.
	www.thymos.com /mind/searle2.html (391 words)

	BBC - h2g2 - John Searle's 'Chinese Room' Argument
		The American philosopher John Searle's 'Chinese Room' analogy is a very simple argument designed to show up the limitations of the famous Turing Test devised in the 1950s by Alan Turing, an English mathematician.
		Searle contrasts this with a similar hypothetical situation, where he is answering questions in English instead of Chinese.
		Searle's intention here is to illustrate the limited nature of mechanical ingenuity in comparison with the varied complexity of human intelligence.
	www.bbc.co.uk /dna/h2g2/A486047 (1137 words)

	DNK Amazon Store :: Intentionality (Cambridge Paperback Library)
		John Searle’s Speech Acts (1969) and Expression and Meaning (1979) developed a highly original and influential approach to the study of language.
		Searle is going against the analytic grain by expositing a theory of mind that is at once novel and distinctive, clearing up confusions and ambiguities along the way.
		Searle would probably have advanced his cause by having someone else tidy up his presentation, as this drawback reduces the splendor of the overall book.
	www.entertainmentcareers.net /book/ProductDetails.aspx?asin=0521273021 (663 words)

	JOHN SEARLE'S CHINESE ROOM ARGUMENT (10-Jun-2007)
		Searle confuses the mental qualities of one computational process, himself for example, with those of another process that the first process might be interpreting, a process that understands Chinese, for example.
		Searle concludes from this that a computer program carrying out the rules doesn't understand Chinese either, and therefore no computer program can understand anything.
		I propose to discuss what would actually be involved in a set of rules for conducting a conversation in Chinese, independently of whether these rules are to be carried out by a human or a machine.
	www-formal.stanford.edu /jmc/chinese.html (1794 words)

	Cognitive Science: The Effects of Writing on Language, Mind and Consciousness - John Searle
		John Searle is Mills Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language at University of California- Berkeley.
		John Searle: But now when we move to written language, you get another big jump off because you can now do things with compositionality, representation and commitment that you can't do with spoken language.
		John Searle: Alright, now this is the absolute point and we have to get this across: there are two great steps in the development of cognition.
	www.childrenofthecode.org /interviews/searle.htm (5158 words)

	Metapsychology Online Reviews - Consciousness and Language (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Searle deepens them when he tackles the problems of conversation (article 10), of animal thought (article 4) or of collective intentions and behavior (article 4).
		Searle proposes a view that he calls "biological naturalism" according to which (i) "consciousness is a biological phenomenon caused by brain processes and realized in the structure of the brain" and (ii) we should accordingly reject the categories of materialism and dualism altogether (p.
		Those familiar with Searle won't be surprised by the humor, the clarity, the vigor and the straightforwardness of his style.
	www.mentalhelp.net /books/books.php?type=de&id=3136 (1367 words)

	paul-almond.com - John Searle's Position within an Evolutionary Context
		Searle states that attempting to create a conscious machine by making one that behaves as if it were conscious is irrelevant, yet his own claims, combined with the view that consciousness exists in humans and that human biology was produced by Darwinian evolution suggest that this is exactly what evolution did
		If Searle agrees that there is a fifty percent chance that one of these machines is conscious when the number of such machines is relatively low then he is weakening his own assertion that externally observable behaviour is irrelevant.
		In this case Searle’s assertion that the externally observable behaviour of a machine is irrelevant, with regard to whether or not it is conscious, is weakened.
	www.paul-almond.com /SearleAndEvolution.htm (3299 words)

	Searle against the world:
		As John McDowell describes it, Searle's strategy is to exploit "the possibility of anchoring the particular-directedness of the [experiences] in question to the particularity of the relevant experiences themselves" (1991, 216).
		Searle needs to find a way, in giving the form of the content of experience, to isolate the representation of the causal role of the object from what the object is represented as.
		Although Searle accepts the naive view that perception is "direct" (1983, 46 and 57)-he is anything but a sense-data theorist-his account of the content of a visual experience in terms of CVE suggests that this relation is indirect: one is aware of the object as just the cause the experience.
	userwww.sfsu.edu /~kbach/Searle.html (5922 words)

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