Mind, Language and Society: Doing Philosophy in the Real World (Master Minds) - Hardcover

An introduction to the major questions of philosophy by one of Americas greatest and best-known philosophers. A practical guide to philosophical theory and how it applies to your life. . Reality. Truth. Common sense. Sensibility. Sense. Mind. Consciousness. Society. These are words very much under heated scrutiny these days. But few of us are equipped with the means, background, and structure to discuss these concepts with utter confidence. John Searle means to help that problem with this book, systematically taking the reader through the conceptual problems associated with basic metaphysics, the biology of mind, the structure of consciousness, the paradox of intentionality, the structure of the social universe, and how language works as a kind of human action. He comes out forcefully in favor of the existence of the real world, understanding anti-realism as satisfying a basic urge to power. If we claim that the world is a perceptual construction, than we can change the world by changing our perception of it. Disillusionment with psychology is leading more and more people to formal philosophy for clues about how to think about life.

But most of us who try to grapple with concepts such as reality, truth, common sense, consciousness, and society lack the rigorous training to discuss them with any confidence. John Searle brings these notions down from their abstract heights to the terra firma of real-world understanding, so that those with no knowledge of philosophy can understand how these principles play out in our everyday lives. The author stresses that there is a real world out there to deal with, and condemns the belief that the reality of our world is dependent on our perception of it.

John R. Searle was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1932. He attended the University of Wisconsin from 1949 to 1952 and studied at Oxford University, where he received his BA, MA, and Ph.D. Phil and was a Rhodes Scholar. He taught as a lecturer in philosophy at Christ Church in Oxford from 1956 to 1959 and since then has been a professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has also been a visiting professor at many universities, both in the US and abroad, including the universities of Syracuse, Rutgers, Colorado, SUNY Buffalo, Washington, Michigan, Venice, Florence, Frankfurt, Toronto, Campinas (Brazil), Oslo, Berlin, and Oxford.