Bøger af John R. Searle

An introduction to the major questions of philosophy by one of America's greatest and best-known philosophers. A practical guide to philosophical theory and how it applies to your life.

This is a formal and systematic study of the logical foundations of speech act theory.

John Searle's Speech Acts (1969) and Expression and Meaning (1979) developed a highly original and influential approach to the study of language. But behind both works lay the assumption that the philosophy of language is in the end a branch of the philosophy of the mind: speech acts are forms of human action and represent just one example of the mind's capacity to relate the human organism to the world. The present book is concerned with these biologically fundamental capacities, and, though third in the sequence, in effect it provides the philosophical foundations for the other two. Intentionality is taken to be the crucial mental phenomenon, and its analysis involves wide-ranging discussions of perception, action, causation, meaning, and reference. In all these areas John Searle has original and stimulating views. He ends with a resolution of the 'mind-body' problem.

This book takes up just the problems that perplex people and does what good philosophy always does: it dispels the illusion caused by the specious collision of truths. How to reconcile common sense and science? Searle argues that the truths of common sense and the truths of science are both right; the only question is how to fit them together.

Written in an outstandingly clear and lively style, this 1969 book provokes its readers to rethink issues they may have regarded as long since settled.

Bogen kan bruges som en generel introduktion til en lang række af filosofiens centrale begreber og emner såsom sjæl-legeme-problemet, psykens struktur, intentionalitet, sprogets natur og det sociale univers’ opbygning. Men den særlige styrke i Searles tilgang til disse emner er bestræbelsen på at få tingene til at hænge sammen. Han viser, at der ikke behøver at være et modsætningsforhold mellem at vi mennesker er bevidste væsener, skønt ”det hele egentligt er processer i hjerne og nervesystem”, og at der heller ikke behøver at være modstrid mellem, at vi på den ene side er individuelle, bevidste væsener, og på den anden side er fælles om sprog og samfundsmæssige systemer.Især gymnasielærere, der underviser i Almen Studieforberedelse, vil have glæde af bogen, idet den afspejler tredelingen af filosofifaget i gymnasiet som rettet imod hhv. Mennesket, Samfundet og Naturen.