Book cover of Making the Social World: The Structure of Human Civilization

Book description

The renowned philosopher John Searle reveals the fundamental nature of social reality. What kinds of things are money, property, governments, nations, marriages, cocktail parties, and football games? Searle explains the key role played by language in the creation, constitution, and maintenance of social reality.
We make statements about social facts…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Making the Social World as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a philosopher's take on many similar issues, exploring how our social world is made through imagination and fictions which we then choose, collectively to believe in. 

He is a very clear and crisp writer which helps.  He looks at the constructed reality of money, property, governments, marriages, stock markets, and cocktail parties and the paradox that these only exist because we think they exist, yet they then have an objective existence.

From Geoff's list on how societies think.

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