Philosopher John Searle argues that the power of the state is created by the fact that people are willing to accept it. He goes on to say that this is true with all of our social institutions. As an example, he mentions money, noting that if people ...
Philosopher John Searle discusses the chain of events that takes place in the brain that results in thoughts and feelings.
Philosopher John Searle explains that when the body (including, of course, the brain) dies, the mind and the self die at the same time. He rejects the notion that there is something else, what some would call the soul, that endures despite the death...
Philosopher John Searle talks about what he considers to be the three primary contributions of Charles Darwin. At the time Darwin lived, Professor Searle explains, his most influential idea was that natural selection, rather than intelligent design,...
Philosopher John Searle goes through the "Chinese room argument" to prove that no matter how powerful computers are, they aren't minds. Professor Searle explains that while the computer can very rapidly manipulate formal, syntactical objects (such a...
Philosopher John Searle talks about the correspondence theory of truth, which he says is, "...just a fancy way of saying statements are true when they correspond to how things really are." Professor Searle adds that we've coined a term for that, whi...
Philosopher John Searle discusses Ludwig Wittgenstein and his ideas about language. Professor Searle notes that Wittgenstein believed many of the most pressing problems in philosophy really come down to confusion arising out of misunderstanding the ...
Can we be certain our perceptions are backed up by an external world? Hume is skeptical. "Here experience is, and must be entirely silent." According to Hume we have no good reason for believing in the existence of an external world. We have to beli...
Philosopher John Searle rejects the idea of having to justify "the state" because he says we are not only biological "beasts" but social beasts as well, and can't live without some kind of institutional structure. He does say that there is nothing w...
Philosopher John Searle explores "the mind-body problem." He begins by talking about the perspective of Descartes and others who viewed the mind and the body as totally separate and distinct areas. Professor Searle then goes on to look at how the mi...