John Searle - What is Language?

Click here for pdf of John Searle's essay "What is Language?"

Reading suggestion

Hey there. I thought I'd try to contribute something of substance while away, so I've picked out a few books that I think might jive well with the themes we've been discussing.

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie is a good answer to the fantasy tradition of grand narratives. It concerns itself largely with random chance and pointlessness. (It's also fantastic).

The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker is a great example of philosophical, theological and very gritty fantasy. It's a bit like Dune, and a bit like the Second Crusade.

Enjoy, and I'll see you all on the 28th.

New Book List

I added a new book list with the additions you all suggested that we can work from after we finish Gödel, Escher, Bach which will allow us to zoom in further on some of the main ideas we've been exploring.

I think it will work well if we pick one book from each section that we all read together (like one of the math or science books). The books from other disciplines we can choose whether or not to read individually and those who do read them can present on them. This is a good way of exploring the full constellation of these theories and ideas by each bringing our own areas of interest and expertise to the group.

You can get to it by clicking on the Book List link on the left. Let me know if you have others you want to add.

New Working Book List

General & Formal Systems Theory

Math:

-The Universal Computer- Martin Davis

-The Turing Omnibus- A.K. Dewdney

-Infinity and the Mind- Rudy Rucker

Science:

-General Systems Theory- Ludwig von Bertalanffy

-Complexification- John L. Casti

Philosophy:

- Critical Environments: Postmodern Theory and the Pragmatics of the “Outside”- Cary Wolfe

- Observing Complexity: Systems Theory and Postmodernity- Cary Wolfe

- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus- Ludwig Wittgenstein

Art Theory:

- selection of Systems Art essays (http://www.volweb.cz/horvitz/burnham/homepage.html)

- selections from Computer Music Tutorial- Curtis Roads (“Systems Theory: Linked Automata,” “Brief History of Formal Processes in Music”)

Instantiations:

Hans Haacke

Iannis Xenakis

Chaos Theory

Math:

Poincaré

-Mathematics and the Unexpected- Ivars Ekeland

-Chaos, Fractals and Power Laws- Manfred Schroeder

Science:

- Chaos: Making a New Science- James Gleick

- The Turbulent Mirror- John Briggs and F. David Peat

Philosophy:

- Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science- N. Katherine Hayles

Art Theory:

- selections from Computer Music Tutorial (“Stochastic Processes,” “Fractals,” “Chaos Generators”)

- "Aesthetics of Failure"- Kim Cascone

Instantiations:

- Snow Crash- Neal Stephenson

John Cage

Oval

Pollock

Rauschenberg

Julie Mehretu

Jared Tarbell

Complexity Theory

Math:

-A New Kind of Science- Stephen Wolfram

Science:

- Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos- Seth Lloyd

- Critical Mass- Philip Ball

Philosophy:

- A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity- Manuel DeLanda

Art Theory:

- “Abstraction and Complexity”- Lev Manovich

- selections from Computer Music Tutorial (“Cellular Automata” “Total Automation vs. Iterative Composition”)

Instantiations:

Information Theory (isomorphism, mapping, the location of meaning)

Math:

- Meta-math!: The Quest for Omega- Gregory Chaitin

- Mind Tools- Rudy Rucker

Science:

- Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Theory is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, From our Brains to Black Holes- Charles Seife

Philosophy:

Art Theory:

- Art as Language: Wittgenstein, Meaning and Aesthetic Theory- G.L. Hagberg

Instantiations:

- Pattern Recognition- Gibson

- Crying of Lot 49- Thomas Pynchon

- "Entropy"- Pynchon

- selections of Borges (Library of Babel, Garden of Forking Paths, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis, Tertius)

- Valis- Philip K. Dick

Postmodernity (Axiom systems, undefined terms, incompleteness, relativity, recursion, self-reference, intertextuality)

Math:

- Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty- Morris Kline

Science:

- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions- Thomas Kuhn

- Against Method- Paul Feyerabend

Philosophy:

- The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge- Jean-François Lyotard

- "From Postmodernism to Postmodernity: the Local/Global Context” http://www.ihabhassan.com/postmodernism_to_postmodernity.htm

- Mythologies- Roland Barthes

- Limits of Interpretation- Umberto Eco

- Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature- Richard Rorty

Art Theory:

Instantiations:

- Gravity's Rainbow-Thomas Pynchon

- White Noise- Don DeLillo

- Infinite Jest- David Foster Wallace

Artificial Intelligence & Artificial Life

Math:

-The Computational Beauty of Nature- Gary William Flake

Science:

- How we Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics- N. Katherine Hayles

- Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology- Steven Levy

Philosophy:

Art Theory:

- Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life- Mitchell Whitelaw

Instantiations:

- Galatea 2.2- Richard Powers