John Searle in the Year 2010—Reviews

Abstract

I regard John Searle as one of the truly great philosophers of the last 50 years. He has developed J. L. Austin's sketch for a speech act theory into a systematic theory; he has within a naturalist framework created a specific nonreductionist theory of intentionality in which he has embedded his speech act theory; and he has used all this as a point of departure in creating a naturalist ontology of mind and social reality. Also, he has put forward a very interesting critique of the belief–desire model in the philosophy of action and rationality. I find it very odd that (if Wikipedia is correct) the series the Library of Living Philosophers seems not to be planning a volume for him. Last year, Searle published a new book, Making the Social World (MS), in which he summarizes most of his philosophical views and enters a new area, political philosophy; the last chapter contains a defense of human rights. In December 2009, Searle gave “The 13th Munster Lectures on Philosophy” and participated in a 2-day colloquium about his philosophy. This resulted in the anthology, John R. Searle. Thinking about the Real World (TR), where Searle gives a brief presentation of his philosophy and replies to criticism put forward in 11 multiauthored papers. It might be seen as a substitute for an LLP volume, were it not for the case that the philosophers behind the papers are not famous. In his introduction, Searle for the first time makes remarks on aesthetics and art. It is interesting to see how Searle develops his biological naturalism and social ontology into remarks on political philosophy and the philosophy of art, but it does not give rise to anything remarkably new in these areas; and he makes no effort to Int Ontology Metaphysics (2011) 12:73–85 DOI 10.1007/s12133-010-0073-z