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Mariam Awwad sums up a very philosophical consciousness.
John Rogers Searle was a highly influential philosopher of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, shaping discussions on language, mind, and the nature of understanding for over sixty years.
Born in Denver in 1932, Searle studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He later won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, where he earned his doctorate under J.L. Austin and Peter Strawson. Searle was deeply influenced by the 'ordinary language philosophy' of his supervisors, whose focus on the practical dimensions of speech laid the groundwork for his own further development of speech-act theory. His years in England significantly impacted his lifelong focus on how words not only describe the world but also act within it.
In 1959 Searle joined the University of California, Berkeley, where he would teach for the rest of his career. As the Slusser Professor of Philosophy of Mind and Language, Searle was known for his challenging yet clear teaching style and his unique blend of analytic precision and philosophical depth. He received numerous honors, including the National Humanities Medal and the Mind & Brain Prize. His academic recognition acknowledged not only the originality of his ideas but also his skill in translating complex philosophical issues, ranging from questions of consciousness to the foundations of society, into public discussion.
In his reflections on language, Searle emphasized that it is a crucial tool for expressing and communicating meaning, but that meaning itself does not reside in language; rather, it exists in the relationship between mental states and the world. Building on this idea, he rejected any form of reductionism that explains meaning solely in terms of physical processes, instead stressing the irreducibility of intentionality. In this context, 'intentionality' is a jargon term referring to the fact that consciousness is always about something, and usually something other than itself. It is a property material objects do not have, only minds. This understanding of meaning as grounded in the intentional relation between mind and world also shaped Searle's firm stance against 'computational functionalism'. For Searle, mental phenomena could not be fully described by theories that view the mind as merely a system of inputs, mechanical processing, and outputs.
Searle's insights into the philosophy of mind and the nature of computation remain highly relevant in a modern tech landscape dominated by systems like ChatGPT, just as they were in the 1980s when his 'Chinese Room' thought experiment challenged whether machines can genuinely understand rather than only simulate understanding.
In this thought experiment, Searle asks us to imagine a person in a sealed room who doesn't understand Chinese. They receive Chinese characters written on cards through a slot, and follow a detailed English rulebook to manipulate these symbols and send new sets of characters back. To outsiders, the responses appear fluent, as if a Chinese speaker were making them. However, the person inside doesn't understand the symbols; they're simply following formal rules about how to respond to the symbols presented. Searle argued that this is also how computers process information - by manipulating symbols based on preprogrammed rules of syntax and grammar, without understanding their meaning. So even when a computer produces intelligent, appropriate responses, it's just mechanically handling signs without any comprehension of them. Searle emphasized that this shows how genuine understanding requires more than computation, it involves consciousness - a quality unique to biological organisms. Therefore, for Searle, the human mind is not a program running on neural hardware, but a biological phenomenon grounded in consciousness. The Chinese Room argument can also be applied to Large Language Models, which despite their linguistic sophistication operate without genuine understanding. Searle would likely have viewed today's AI systems as impressive examples of symbol manipulation that nevertheless lack awareness or any form of subjective experience, including intentional states. In an era increasingly shaped by intelligent systems, Searle's arguments also remind us that ethical and political questions about responsibility and truth cannot be answered without understanding the systems involved.
Searle's academic career, however, came to an abrupt end before he could comment explicitly on the recent developments in AI. It was halted in 2017 by allegations of sexual harassment at Berkeley that led to the revocation of Searle's emeritus status and the cessation of his teaching responsibilities.
These events rightly cast doubt on his personal conduct and professional reputation. However, they do not diminish the intellectual importance of his philosophical contributions, which continue to influence discussions on language, mind, and consciousness. So his legacy, like that of many influential figures, remains both lasting and ambivalent. It reminds us that intellectual achievement and personal integrity must be judged together, even as the importance of an individual's ideas persists.
Amidst the public controversy Searle's private life entered a difficult phase too. Also in 2017 he faced the loss of his wife Dagmar, whose presence had quietly accompanied his philosophical journey for more than half a century. All of Searle's major philosophical works - ranging from The Rediscovery of Mind to Seeing Things As They Are - are dedicated to his wife.
Searle passed away on September 17, 2025. He was 93 years old. With his death, philosophy loses one of its most visible and argumentative voices.
© Mariam Awwad 2025
Mariam Awwad is a Research Assistant in the Department of Philosophy at Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf.