John Searle / Nick Fotion.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fotion, N.

Series:

Philosophy now (Princeton, N.J.)

Philosophy now

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Searle, John R.

Philosophy of mind.

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Physical Description:

v, 266 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2000.

Summary:

One of the world's most important philosophers of mind and language, John Searle (b. 1932) is direct, combative, and intellectually ambitious. His philosophy has made fundamental and lasting contributions to how we think about speech, consciousness, knowledge, truth, and the nature of social reality. Here, with remarkable clarity, a leading authority introduces students and generalists to those contributions.

Nick Fotion explains Searle's ideas in full, while also testing and exploring their implications. He first takes up Searle's philosophy of language, examining how Searle treats speech acts and thinks about the metaphorical use of language. Next, the book sketches Searle's philosophy of mind, including his claims for intentionality and for the centrality of consciousness. This discussion highlights Searle's argument that the mind possesses a subjective character that materialist explanations (including behaviorism and strong artificial intelligence) cannot contain. The author goes on to look at Searle's later writings on the construction of social reality -- work that mounts a sophisticated but plainly stated case against deconstructionist, skeptical, and relativistic accounts.

Concluding with general reflections on Searle's position vis a vis ontology and epistemology, this book is the first to assess and identify common themes and approaches in the whole range of his extensive thought. In doing so, it presents Searle's extremely influential work for the first time as a coherent philosophy.

Contents:

Part I Philosophy of language

1 Searle's speech act theory 11

2 Searle's taxonomic theory 39

3 Non-standard speech acts and speech activity 57

4 Metaphor and fiction 75

Part II Philosophy of mind

5 Intentionality of mind and language 99

6 Network and Background in mental states and language 117

7 Rediscovering the mind 129

8 Cognitive psychology and the unconscious 149

Part III Philosophy of society and other matters

9 Social reality 175

10 Institutions 191

11 Ontology 213

12 Truth, representation and epistemology 231.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-260) and index.

First published in 2000 by Acumen (Teddington, UK)

ISBN:

0691057117

0691057125

OCLC:

46325097