Our tools are extensions of our purposes, and so we find it natural to make metaphorical attributions of intentionality to them; but I take it no philosophical ice is cut by such examples.
John SearleRead
We do not live in several different, or even two different, worlds, a mental world and a physical world, a scientific world and a world of common sense. Rather, there is just one world; it is the world we all live in, and we need to account for how we exist as part of it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the unity of our experiences, rejecting the separation between mental and physical realms.
In this quote, John Searle argues against the duality often perceived between various aspects of reality, such as the mental versus the physical and the scientific versus the practical. He advocates for an integrated understanding of existence, suggesting that all these experiences are part of a singular reality that must be understood in its entirety, urging us to responsibly acknowledge our place within this complex world.
Themes
UnityRealityExistencePhilosophyCommon Sense
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of reality.
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All quotes →You can't *discover* that the brain is a digital computer. You can only *interpret* the brain as a digital computer.
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Darwin's greatest achievement was to show that the appearance of purpose, planning, teleology (design), and intentionality in the origin and development of human and animal species was entirely an illusion. The illusion could be explained by evolutionary processes that contained no such purpose at all. But the spread of ideas through imitation required the whole apparatus of human consciousness and intentionality
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