University of Iowa Press eBooks· 2018· Book chapter
ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF A SOCIAL REALITY
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- 2018year
Short summary
Social reality, such as money or marriage, is constructed from brute reality (independent of human agreement) through collective intentionality and speech acts, ultimately resting on custom and habit.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Social reality is built upon brute reality, which is independent of human minds.
- Collective intentionality and speech acts are key mechanisms for constructing social facts.
- Social phenomena like money, marriage, and government are facts only by human agreement.
- Social reality is sustained by custom and habit, not by inherent properties of objects.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
This short treatise looks at how we construct a social reality from our sense impressions; at how, for example, we construct a five-pound note with all that implies in terms of value and social meaning, from the printed piece of paper we see and touch. In The Construction of Social Reality, eminent philosopher John Searle examines the structure of social reality (or those portions of the world that are facts only by human agreement, such as money, marriage, property, and government), and contrasts it to a brute reality that is independent of human agreement. Searle shows that brute reality provides the indisputable foundation for all social reality, and that social reality, while very real, is maintained by nothing more than custom and habit.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. University of Iowa Press eBooks, 2018 · DOI ↗
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Field: Sociology and Political Science
Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences