Collective intentionality and the construction of social reality in John Searle

• Grant number: 17/09067-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2017
• End date: May 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Ianni Segatto
• Grantee: Caio Motta
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this project is to examine and problematize the notion of "collective intentionality" developed by John Searle in his work The Construction of Social Reality, against the background of his own theory of intentionality, as well as against the background of certain theories concerning this notion developed by other analytic philosophers. Given the brief formulation of the notion, I propose to investigate the place occupied by it in the author's theory of intentionality, and its capacity to fulfill the authors own requirements: to include intentionality in the sphere of social reality, understanding it as a collective phenomenon arising from individual minds. Moreover, other references will be used in order to better understand Searles's theory, either in his successes or his mistakes. (AU)