John Searle and the Construction of Social Reality

(Hardback)

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In 1995 John Searle published The Construction of Social Reality, a text which not only promises to disclose the institutional backdrop against which speech takes place, but initiate a new "philosophy of society." Since then The Construction of Social Reality has been subject to a flurry of criticism. While many of Searle's interlocutors share the sense that the text marks an important breakthrough, he has time and again accused critics of misunderstanding his claims. Despite Searle's characteristic crispness and clarity there remains some confusion, among both philosophers and sociologists, regarding the significance of his proposals. This book traces some of the high points of this dialogue, leveraging Searle's own clarifications to propose a new way of understanding the text. In particular, Joshua Rust looks to Max Weber in suggesting that Searle has articulated an ideal type. In locating The Construction of Social Reality under the umbrella of one of sociology's founding fathers, this book not only makes Searle's text more accessible to the readers in the social sciences, but presents Max Weber as a thinker worthy of philosophical reconsideration. Moreover, the recharacterization of Searle's claims in terms of the ideal type helps facilitate a comparison between Searle and other social theorists such as Talcott Parsons.

Reviews

'Among the best work I have read in social philosophy. Anyone interested in the nature and function of philosophy in the social sciences could take some valuable lessons from this book. The reader may discover that what she hoped or thought social philosophy could do is not what it does at all.' Eric Schwitzgebel, University of California, Riverside, CA * Blurb from reviewer *

Author Bio

Joshua Rust (Ph.D., University of California at Riverside) was a student of John Searle's at U.C. Berkeley. He is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Stetson University, USA, and is the author of John Searle and the Construction of Social Reality (Continuum, 2005).