Thursday, November 13, 2025

Searle contra deconstruction

In a new essay at Postliberal Order, I recall the late John Searle’s critique of deconstructionism and postmodernism more generally, which were major influences on today’s woke ideologies.

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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 14, 2025 at 3:47 AM

    Thank you! Look forward to reading it.

    For anyone who is interested here is the Reason interview in which Searle talks about Derrida, Rorty and liberal relativism more generally

    https://reason.com/2000/02/01/reality-principles-an-intervie/

    (I actually think Rorty is more dangerous than Derrida as the latter made a point of being more flamboyant and controversial whereas the Anglo-Pragmatist arising as he did from Quinian scientism is more able to slip into policy as generic humanism)

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    1. Edward FeserNovember 14, 2025 at 11:06 AM

      Don't know if you noticed, but I was the one who interviewed him for Reason (with Steven Postrel) ;-)

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    2. AnonymousNovember 14, 2025 at 12:35 PM

      No! Guilty as charged there I’m afraid Ed, my bad! (in my defense I haven’t actually read it yet myself, got a print out of the other article on Deconstructionism waiting on my desk too).

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    3. Edward FeserNovember 14, 2025 at 10:33 PM

      No prob!

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  2. Vini TadeoNovember 14, 2025 at 5:58 AM

    I should've said that earlier, but I think Searle was a great thinker and one of the most relevant philosophers of the last few decades. Even though he would not go too far into that sometimes, he had the capacity to pierce through the veil of incoherence that materialism has, and he drew relevant conclusions from this.

    Of course, I do not agree with everything he said about this or that matter, but undeniably, he was a great guy. We all know he deserved much better treatment for all his work. Shame on Berkeley for doing him dirty in the way they did.

    I also hope that, in his final moments on earth, he could have found God. May we all pray for his soul.

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  3. AnonymousNovember 16, 2025 at 12:06 PM

    That's a .22 caliber bolt action rifle he's holding. It's a kid's rifle. You don't hunt animals or take out people with it.

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    1. The Great Thurible of DarknessNovember 17, 2025 at 6:48 PM

      It's not like the rest of his outfit would be particularly suitable for hunting or warfare.

      Although I do love the mental image of Searle taking potshots at tin cans and imagining they're the heads of functionalist philosophers of mind.

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    2. AnonymousNovember 17, 2025 at 8:23 PM

      It's a plinker. Correct: you don't hunt big game with it, and certainly don't use it when planning to kill people or protect yourself. However, you might use it for hunting squirrels or raccoons, as they are quite accurate, and you often would do enough damage to a person that they would stop attacking you...you might even get lucky (or unlucky) and kill them. It's happened before: in Boston alone they had 6 such deaths over a 4-year period.

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