John Searle facts for kids

Quick facts for kids John Searle
Searle at Christ Church, Oxford, 2005
Born	John Rogers Searle (1932-07-31) July 31, 1932 (age 92) Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin–Madison Christ Church, Oxford
Spouse(s)	Dagmar Searle
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic Direct realism
Thesis	Problems arising in the theory of meaning out of the notions of sense and reference (1959)
Academic advisors	Peter Strawson, Peter Geach, J.L. Austin
Doctoral students	Bence Nanay
Other notable students	William Hirstein
Main interests	Philosophy of language Philosophy of mind Intentionality · Social reality
Notable ideas	Indirect speech acts Chinese room Biological naturalism Direction of fit
Signature

John Rogers Searle (born July 31, 1932) is an American philosopher. He is well-known for his ideas about how we use language, how our minds work, and how society is built. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley for many years, starting in 1959.

Searle studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and later at the University of Oxford. He was involved in student movements, like "Students against Joseph McCarthy" and the Free Speech Movement.

He has received several important awards, including the Jean Nicod Prize in 2000 and the National Humanities Medal in 2004. His early work focused on "speech acts," which are the actions we perform when we speak, like promising or asking. He is also famous for his "Chinese room" argument, which questions whether computers can truly "think" or "understand."

About John Searle

John Searle speaking at Google, 2015

John Searle's father, G.W. Searle, was an electrical engineer. His mother, Hester Beck Searle, was a physician (doctor).

Searle started college at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He later became a Rhodes Scholar and went to the University of Oxford in England. There, he earned all his university degrees.

He taught at the University of California, Berkeley for a long time. Even after he officially retired in 2014, he kept teaching until 2016.

Searle and Politics

When he was a student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Searle was the secretary for a group called "Students against Joseph McCarthy". McCarthy was a powerful senator at that time.

In 1959, Searle began teaching at Berkeley. He was the first tenured professor to support the Free Speech Movement in 1964–65. This movement was about students' rights to protest and speak freely on campus. In 1969, he also supported the university during a disagreement with students over People's Park.

In the late 1980s, Searle was involved in a legal case about rent control in Berkeley. He believed that landlords should be able to charge more rent. The California Supreme Court agreed with some of his arguments in 1990. This led to changes in Berkeley's rent control rules. Searle felt it was a matter of basic rights.

After the September 11 attacks, Searle wrote an article about how the United States should deal with threats. He believed the country was in a long-term struggle against groups that were against it. He suggested that the U.S. might need to take stronger actions to prevent attacks.

Awards and Honors

John Searle has received five honorary doctorate degrees from different countries. He is also an honorary visiting professor at Tsing Hua University and East China Normal University in China.

In 2000, he won the Jean Nicod Prize. In 2004, he received the National Humanities Medal. And in 2006, he was given the Mind & Brain Prize.

Searle's Philosophical Ideas

John Searle's work explores how we understand the world and each other. He looks at how language, our minds, and society are connected.

Speech Acts

Searle's early work focused on "speech acts." These are the actions we perform when we speak. For example, when you say "I promise to help," you are not just saying words; you are performing the act of promising. Other speech acts include asking a question, giving an order, or making a statement.

Searle explained that every speech act has two main parts:

• Illocutionary force: This is the purpose or intention behind what you say. For example, if you say "It's cold in here," your intention might be to ask someone to close the window.
• Propositional content: This is the actual meaning of the words you use. In "It's cold in here," the content is about the temperature.

He also talked about the "direction of fit."

• When you make a statement like "The sky is blue," your words are supposed to match the world. If the sky isn't blue, your statement is wrong. This is called "word-to-world" fit.
• When you give a command like "Close the door!", you want the world to change to match your words. You want the door to become closed. This is called "world-to-word" fit.
• Some speech acts have a "double direction of fit," and some have "no direction of fit" (like saying "I'm sorry").

Intentionality and the Background

In his book Intentionality (1983), Searle explored "intentionality." This is the ability of our minds to be "about" things. For example, when you think about a tree, your thought is "about" that tree. Your beliefs, desires, and memories are all "intentional" because they are about something.

Searle also introduced the idea of "the Background." This is all the unspoken knowledge, skills, and assumptions we have that help us understand the world. It's not something we think about consciously.

For example, if someone tells you to "cut the cake," you know to use a knife. If they say "cut the grass," you know to use a lawnmower. The request didn't say "use a knife" or "use a lawnmower," but your Background knowledge helps you understand. Searle says the Background is like a set of brain structures that help us make sense of things.

Consciousness

Searle believes that consciousness is a real and important part of our existence. He argues that many scientists and philosophers have tried to ignore or deny consciousness.

Searle says that consciousness is a real, subjective experience. This means it's something only you can feel, like pain or happiness. He believes that consciousness is caused by the physical processes happening in our brains. He calls this idea "biological naturalism." It means that consciousness is a natural biological feature of certain brains, just like digestion is a biological process.

Subjective Experience

Searle explains that some things are "ontologically subjective." This means they only exist because someone experiences them. For example, the feeling of pain is subjective. Only the person feeling it truly experiences it. Even if a doctor can objectively say "this patient has back pain," the pain itself is a personal, subjective experience.

Artificial Intelligence

Searle has strong views on artificial intelligence (AI). He argues against "Strong AI." Strong AI is the idea that a computer, if programmed correctly, could actually have a mind and truly "understand" things, just like a human.

In 1980, Searle created the "Chinese room" argument to challenge Strong AI. Imagine a person who doesn't know Chinese sitting in a room. They have a book of rules written in English. Someone outside slides Chinese characters under the door. The person in the room follows the rules in the book to match the characters and slide new characters back out. To someone outside, it looks like the room understands Chinese. But the person inside doesn't understand Chinese at all; they are just following rules.

Searle uses this to argue that computers, even if they seem to "understand" or "translate" language, are just following rules. They don't truly understand in the way humans do. He says that consciousness is a physical property of the brain, like digestion or fire. A computer can simulate digestion, but it won't actually digest food. Similarly, a computer can simulate thinking, but it won't actually be conscious.

Social Reality

Searle also studies how we create "social reality." These are things that exist because we collectively agree they exist, even if they aren't physical objects. Examples include money, governments, or games like baseball.

He explains "collective intentionality." This is when a group of people share an intention, like "we are going for a walk." It's different from just individual intentions.

Searle says that social reality is built through "institutional facts." These facts come from "constitutive rules" that have the form "X counts as Y in C."

• For example, a piece of paper (X) counts as money (Y) in our economic system (C).
• Throwing a ball over a fence (X) counts as a home run (Y) in a baseball game (C).

These rules create the social world we live in.

Rationality

In his book Rationality in Action (2001), Searle discusses how we make decisions and act rationally. He argues that our usual ideas about rationality are too simple.

He believes that when we make a decision, there's often a "gap" between our reasons and our actions. For example, you might have good reasons to study, but you still have to make the effort to actually sit down and do it. This gap makes us feel like we have free will. Searle thinks that all rational actions depend on us having free will.

Searle also argues that we can do things rationally even if we don't have a specific desire to do them. For example, if you promise to do something, you "should" do it, even if you don't feel like it. The act of promising itself creates an obligation.

Finally, he suggests that rationality is not just about following strict rules. Instead, it's often about balancing different desires and deciding what we value most. For instance, you might want to travel to Paris, but you also want to save money. Rationality helps you decide which desire is more important to you.

Images for kids

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  John Searle's signature

See also