Whatever is referred to must exist. Let us call this the axiom of existence.
quote by John Searle
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My car and my adding machine understand nothing: they are not in that line of business.
quote by John Searle
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In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.
quote by John Searle
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Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.
quote by John Searle
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Where questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.
quote by John Searle
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I will argue that in the literal sense the programmed computer understands what the car and the adding machine understand, namely, exactly nothing.
quote by John Searle
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Berkeley had a liberal element in the student body who tended to be quite active. I think that's in general a feature of intellectually active places.
quote by John Searle
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I want to block some common misunderstandings about ""understanding"": In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about the word ""understanding.""
quote by John Searle
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There are clear cases in which ""understanding"" literally applies and clear cases in which it does not apply; and these two sorts of cases are all I need for this argument.
quote by John Searle
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An utterance can have Intentionality, just as a belief has Intentionality, but whereas the Intentionality of the belief is intrinsic the Intentionality of the utterance is derived.
quote by John Searle
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