John Searle Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• My car and my adding machine understand nothing: they are not in that line of business

  John Searle

  Car, Machines, Lines

  "Minds, Brains and Programs". Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3, 1980.

  7 Copy quote

• Our 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.

  John Searle

  Philosophical, Cutting, Ice

  "Minds, Brains and Programs". Book by John Searle, 1980.

  84 Copy quote

• The general nature of the speech act fallacy can be stated as follows, using "good" as our example. Calling something good is characteristically praising or commending or recommending it, etc. But it is a fallacy to infer from this that the meaning of "good" is explained by saying it is used to perform the act of commendation.

  John Searle

  Example, Calling, Speech

  "Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language". Book by John Searle, 1969.

  9 Copy quote

• We 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.

  John Searle

  Umpires, Car, Understanding

  "Minds, Brains and Programs". Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3, 1980.

  35 Copy quote

• I want to block some common misunderstandings about "understanding": In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about the word "understanding."

  John Searle

  Block, Understanding, Want

  "Minds, Brains and Programs". John Searle, "Behavioral and Brain Sciences", Volume 3, No. 3, 1980.

  25 Copy quote

• The assertion fallacy is the fallacy of confusing the conditions for the performance of the speech act of assertion with the analysis of the meaning of particular words occurring in certain assertions.

  John Searle

  Confusing, Analysis, Speech

  "Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language". Book by John Searle, 1969.

  6 Copy quote

• The ascription of an unconscious intentional phenomenon to a system implies that the phenomenon is in principle accessible to consciousness.

  John Searle

  Principles, Consciousness, Phenomenon

  "Consciousness, Explanatory Inversion, and Cognitive Science". The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13, 4, December 1990.

  6 Copy quote

• It seems to me obvious that infants and many animals that do not in any ordinary sense have a language or perform speech acts nonetheless have Intentional states. Only someone in the grip of a philosophical theory would deny that small babies can literally be said to want milk and that dogs want to be let out or believe that their master is at the door.

  John Searle

  Dog, Baby, Believe

  "Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind". Book by John Searle, 1983.

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• In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.

  John Searle

  Simple, Decision, Matter

  "Minds, Brains and Programs". Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3, 1980.

  5 Copy quote

• There 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.

  John Searle

  Umpires, Two, Understanding

  "Minds, Brains and Programs". John Searle, "Behavioral and Brain Sciences", Volume 3, No. 3, 1980.

  7 Copy quote

• Berkeley 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.

  John Searle

  Thinking, Elements, Body

  "Professor recalls pros, cons of Free Speech Movement". Interview with Meriah Doty, www.cnn.com. January 9, 2004.

  8 Copy quote

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