Skip to content

Precisely by inculcating a critical attitude, the "canon" served to demythologize the conventional pieties of the American bourgeoisie and provided the student with a perspective from which to critically analyze American culture and institutions. Ironically, the same tradition is now regarded as oppressive. The texts once served an unmasking function; now we are told that it is the texts which must be unmasked.

— John Searle

Another quote →

More quotes by John Searle

Dualism makes the problem insoluble; materialism denies the existence of any phenomenon to study, and hence of any problem.

Consciousness and Language (2002)

The Intentionality of the mind not only creates the possibility of meaning, but limits its forms.

Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind (1983)

Materialism ends up denying the existence of any irreducible subjective qualitative states of sentience or awareness.

Consciousness and Language (2002)

You do not understand your own tradition if you do not see it in relation to others.

"Akrasia" [weakness of will] in rational beings is as common as wine in France.

All John Searle quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Searle (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.