From mind to society: Social ontology and John Searle

Although 'Social Ontology' has not been a very essential notion, recently it has drawn much attention in philosophy. One of the prominent philosophers who has much to say about social ontology is John R. Searle. When his social ontology is taken into consideration it is clearly seen that Searle is not only interested in the society, he is also taking humans and the nature, of which humans are a part, as a base. After he explains the relationship of human beings to the nature, Searle takes a step forward to explain how humans constitute the society. When Searle's thoughts upon society are in closer examination in nature-human beings-society triangle, it can be clearly seen that Searle stresses the importance of human mind in this constitution. In this respect, Searle draws a schema of society from mind to society. The steps of this schema can roughly be summarized as intentionality and institutionalization. On the other hand, two famous philosophical problems can be recited as free speech and free will. In the light of these, whether the philosophy that Searle accounts for has integrity becomes of importance. In this respect, it is expected that intentionality, institutionalization, free speech and free will must demonstrate compatibility. While Searle accounts for his philosophy, he moves forward in steps. One of these steps is intentionality while the other one is institutionalization. When the consistency of the transition between these two terms with those of free speech and free will is examined closely, whether there is a problem in this transition or not becomes of great importance. The aim of this study, after giving a description of social ontology, will be to examine whether there is a consistency of the transition between these aforementioned four terms. Keywords: Social Ontology, Intentionality, Institutionalization, Free Speech, Free will