--- title: "3 John R. Searle Quotes - Famous Philosopher" description: "American philosopher (1932–2025)... | John Rogers Searle was an American philosopher widely noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philo..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b6/john-r-searle-82459_academic-life_it-writing-has-enormous-meta-cognitive-i_147758.jpg" --- # John R. Searle (1932–2025) Philosopher **3** quotes in **8** categories Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet John R. Searle was a philosopher. ## Quick Facts About John R. Searle Born July 31, 1932 Died September 17, 2025 Profession Philosopher ## About John R. Searle American philosopher (1932–2025)... \| John Rogers Searle was an American philosopher widely noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and social philosophy. He began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1959 and was Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor Emeritus of the Philosophy of Mi ## Quotes by John R. Searle > [ “It \[writing\] has enormous meta-cognitive implications. The power is this: That you cannot only think in ways that you could not possibly… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-r-searle/it-writing-has-enormous-meta-cognitive-implications-the-power-is-this/) John R. Searle [Academic life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/academic-life/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b6/john-r-searle-82459_academic-life_it-writing-has-enormous-meta-cognitive-i_147758.jpg) > [“In general, I feel if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-r-searle/in-general-i-feel-if-you-can-t-say-it-clearly-you-don-t-understand-it/) John R. Searle [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/676/john-r-searle-82459_understand_in-general-i-feel-if-you-can-t-say-it-cl_779622.jpg) > [“With Derrida, you can hardly misread him, because he’s so obscure. Every time you say, "He says so and so," he always…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-r-searle/with-derrida-you-can-hardly-misread-him-because-he-s-so-obscure-every/) John R. Searle [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75b/john-r-searle-82459_derrida_with-derrida-you-can-hardly-misread-him_2550256.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-r-searle/#itemlist", "name": "John R. Searle Quotes", "numberOfItems": 3, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“It [writing] has enormous meta-cognitive implications. The power is this: That you cannot only think in ways that you could not possibly think if you did not have the written word, but you can now think about the thinking that you do with the written word. There is danger in this, and the danger is that the enormous expressive and self-referential capacities of the written word, that is, the capacities to keep referring to referring to referring, will reach a point where you lose contact with the real world. And this, believe me, is very common in universities. There's a technical name for it, I don't know if we can use it on television, it's called \"bullshit.\" But this is very common in academic life, where people just get a form of self-referentiality of the language, where the language is talking about the language, which is talking about the language, and in the end, it's hot air. That's another name for the same phenomenon.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "John R. 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Every time you say, \"He says so and so,\" he always says, \"You misunderstood me.\" But if you try to figure out the correct interpretation, then that’s not so easy. I once said this to Michel Foucault, who was more hostile to Derrida even than I am, and Foucault said that Derrida practiced the method of obscurantisme terroriste (terrorism of obscurantism). We were speaking French. And I said, \"What the hell do you mean by that?\" And he said, \"He writes so obscurely you can’t tell what he’s saying, that’s the obscurantism part, and then when you criticize him, he can always say, 'You didn’t understand me; you’re an idiot.' That’s the terrorism part.\" And I like that. So I wrote an article about Derrida. I asked Michel if it was OK if I quoted that passage, and he said yes.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "John R. 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