Quotes by John Searle

About John Searle:

John Rogers Searle is an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Widely noted for his contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and social philosophy, he began teaching at Berkeley in 1959. He received the Jean Nicod Prize in 2000; the National Humanities Medal in 2004; and the Mind & Brain Prize in 2006. Among his notable concepts is the "Chinese room" argument against "strong" artificial intelligence.
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My car and my adding machine understand nothing: they are not in that line of business.

John Searle

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

I will argue that in the literal sense the programmed computer understands what the car and the adding machine understand, namely, exactly nothing.

John Searle

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

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

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

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

Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.

John Searle

Whatever is referred to must exist. Let us call this the axiom of existence.

John Searle

Where 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.

John Searle

An 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.

John Searle

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

Author Bio

  • NameJohn Searle
  • DescriptionAmerican philosopher
  • BornJuly 31, 1932
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPhilosopher
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship; National Humanities Medal