John Searle details how human beings transform physical objects into institutional facts through collective intentionality. He distinguishes between brute facts, which exist independently of human opinion, and social facts, such as money, marriage, and private property, which function only because of shared agreement. Searle explains the logical mechanism of "constituent rules" following the formula "X counts as Y in context C." This framework reveals how a piece of paper becomes a five-pound note or how a sequence of vocal sounds becomes a legal promise, illustrating that while social institutions are objective, they depend entirely on persistent human belief and habit.
This book serves students of philosophy, sociology, and political science who need to understand the ontological foundations of society. Readers gain a technical vocabulary for analyzing how cultural systems exert power despite having no basis in physical laws. By finishing these chapters, a reader understands the difference between the material world and the layers of symbolic meaning that humans project onto it. It provides a blueprint for identifying where social conventions begin and where the raw physical environment ends.
Deep, outward-looking and open-ended; a demanding read.
Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2010
- Publisher
- Simon and Schuster
- ISBN
- 9781439108369
- Language
- EN
