Our tools are extensions of... by John Searle, an American Philosopher

John Searle Quotes

“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.”

50% of people like this quote

John Searle

Author details

Name: John Searle

Nationality: American

Date of Birth: Dec 1, 1932

Profession: Philosopher

Other John Searle Quotes

Where questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.

John Searle

61% of people like this quote

I want to block some common misunderstandings about "understanding": In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about the word "understanding."

John Searle

56% of people like this quote

My car and my adding machine understand nothing: they are not in that line of business.

John Searle

55% of people like this quote

We often attribute "understanding" and other cognitive predicates by metaphor and analogy to cars, adding machines, and other artifacts, but nothing is proved by such attributions.

John Searle

54% of people like this quote

Berkeley had a liberal element in the student body who tended to be quite active. I think that's in general a feature of intellectually active places.

John Searle

53% of people like this quote

View all John Searle quotes