During an interview of him conducted by Steven R. Postrel and Edward Feser, during which eminent philosopher John R. Searle defends free speech, free inquiry, and the Enlightenment. Here is an excerpt. To read the complete interview at the reason.com archives, please click here.
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In an intellectual scene filled with critics of the Enlightenment’s quest for a coherent understanding of the way the world works, philosopher John R. Searle has become a high-profile defender and exemplar of Enlightenment methods. A professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of 10 books, he attacks big questions–the nature of reality, the mind/body problem, the nature of consciousness–in what he sees as a continuation of the Enlightenment’s scientific and philosophical program.
Along the way, he has become a leading voice in the debates over the possibility of artificial intelligence. Among A.I. researchers and cognitive scientists, he is most famous, and controversial, for his “Chinese Room” thought experiment, which attacks the idea that intelligence is merely rapid computation.
“Philosophy in the Real World,” the subtitle of his most recent book, Mind, Language, and Society, captures two important aspects of Searle’s work: First, he focuses his rigorous philosophical explorations on our common sense of how the “real world” works. Searle believes that good philosophical inquiry begins by paying close attention to everyday experiences, such as speech, and noticing their strangeness. “We have to begin by approaching the problem naively,” he has said. “We have to let ourselves be astounded by facts that any sane person would take for granted.”
Second, Searle believes that the world is in fact real, not a mere construct of texts and word games, and that we can understand that real world–a position known as “metaphysical realism.” He is famous as a vocal and vigorous defender of reason, objectivity, and intellectual standards within the academy. In 1977, he engaged in a highly publicized and often nasty debate over deconstruction’s logical incoherence with French critic Jacques Derrida.
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To read the complete interview at the reason.com archives, please click here.