Construction Of Social Reality, The

Description: 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. Table of Contents: The building blocks of social reality; creating institutional facts; language and social reality; the general theory of institutional facts part I - iteration, interaction, and logical structure; the general theory of institutional facts part II - creation, maintenance, and the hierarchy; background abilities and the explanation of social phenomena; does the real world exist? part I - attacks on realism; does the real world exist? part II - could there be a proof of external realism?; truth and correspondence. Author Biography: John Searle is the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize in 2002 and the National Humanities Medal in 2004.