Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Mind, Language, and Society : Philosophy in the Real World by John R. Searle ISBN: 0-465-04521-9 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.1 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A brilliantly clear summary of Searle's entire philosophy
Comment: John Searle has presented brilliantly original basic theories in the philosophy of language, mind, and the nature of institutional reality. This book summarizes this work, and very importantly, shows the interconnections and hierarchical arrangement of his ideas. Those new to Searle should read this as *the* introduction to his work; those familiar with his work will profit from the arrangement of all of his theories into a single, fully integrated, philosophy.
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent Summary of Searle's Work
Comment: This is a typically clear and compelling book from this distinguished philosopher. It is an excellent summary of Searle's work and can be read profitably by those unfamiliar with his books. Readers familiar with Searle will find little novel but Searle's effort to link his views into a coherent whole is very interesting and worth reading. In this book Searle is concerned not only with describing and synthesizing his prior work but also with illustrating his approach to philosophical problems. This approach can be best seen in his discussion of consciousness. Searle attacks this problem by attempting to give an account that seems to take known facts as a point of departure and avoids use of traditional categories of analysis, such as casting the problem in the form of the mind-body problem. This section is particularly successful and can be read easily as a stand alone document. I believe the sections on challenges to realism and the construction of social reality are also particularly good and can also be used readily as stand alone documents. Another issue very important to Searle is clarity of presentation, and this work, like his prior books, is very well written. At one point in this book Searle mentions that he is working on a new book on rationality. There is no one better qualified to study this subject.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting, but Uncharitably Written
Comment: Ever since I read "The Construction of Social Reality" I have admired Searle. Yet, after reading this work I am left with a foul aftertatse that i can't shake off.
Essentially, Searle is presenting a summary package of his overall philosophy and, in doing so, is also writing a sort of "introduction to philosophy" type book, where he will take the reader through the various problems of philosophy. However, he does a disservice to the uniformed reader by seriously underrepresenting his opponent's arguments. I'm not sure if he does this simply because he is writing to a more elementary reader and, thus, feels justified in brushing off the "hard" philosophical positions by using words like "preposterous" to characteristically push them to the periphery, but this is a common tactic in this book. In the very first chapter Searle classifies the "default positions" that the "common man" will undoubtedly take for granted in every day life. These are positions like naive realism, the correspondance view of truth, the referential theory of meaning, etc. He then states that it is his intention to defend these doctrines, which is fine, but he also is very upfront about his presupposition that denying any of these doctrines is obviously absurd. While in the end I'm sure it matters very little, there is still an air of unsportsman-like conduct festering in Searle's writing. Searle should know better than to commit the strawman fallacy, even if he is writing a more elementary text. It can misrepresent some serious challenges that "ought" to be given serious attention to the average reader. After reading Searle's book, one might mistakenly think that these matters are pretty much settled.
It is still an interesting read, but if this is one of your first reads as a student of philosophy I encourage you delve deeper into the issues Searle has addressed.
 |
Title: Minds, Brains and Science by John R. Searle ISBN: 0674576330 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 1986 List Price(USD): $9.45 |
 |
Title: The CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL REALITY by John R. Searle ISBN: 0684831791 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: Rationality in Action by John R. Searle ISBN: 0262692821 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: Speech Acts : An Essay in the Philosophy of Language by John R. Searle ISBN: 052109626X Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 02 January, 1969 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
 |
Title: Consciousness and Language by John R. Searle ISBN: 0521597447 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 15 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
