John Searle's Quotes
Born: 1932-12-01
Profession: Philosopher
Nation: American
Biography of John Searle
Whatever is referred to must exist. Let us call this the axiom of existence.
Tags: Call, Existence, WhateverI will argue that in the literal sense the programmed computer understands what the car and the adding machine understand, namely, exactly nothing.
Tags: Car, Sense, UnderstandIn many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.
Tags: Decision, Matter, SimpleMy car and my adding machine understand nothing: they are not in that line of business.
Tags: Business, Car, UnderstandWhere conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.
Tags: Between, Concerned, ConsciousWhere questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.
Tags: Simple, Understand, YourselfAn utterance can have Intentionality, just as a belief has Intentionality, but whereas the Intentionality of the belief is intrinsic the Intentionality of the utterance is derived.
Tags: Belief, Derived, IntrinsicBerkeley had a liberal element in the student body who tended to be quite active. I think that's in general a feature of intellectually active places.
Tags: Body, Quite, StudentI want to block some common misunderstandings about 'understanding': In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about the word 'understanding.'
Tags: Common, Fancy, WordOur tools are extensions of our purposes, and so we find it natural to make metaphorical attributions of intentionality to them; but I take it no philosophical ice is cut by such examples.
Tags: Cut, Ice, NaturalThere are clear cases in which 'understanding' literally applies and clear cases in which it does not apply; and these two sorts of cases are all I need for this argument.
Tags: Apply, Argument, ClearWe often attribute 'understanding' and other cognitive predicates by metaphor and analogy to cars, adding machines, and other artifacts, but nothing is proved by such attributions.
Tags: Car, Cars, Often