Construction of Social Reality

The Elements Required for the Development of Societal Reality

The author supports her claim about the elements required for the development of societal reality with psychological data on mental and physical truths. The author's utilization of material to back up her claims was successful. She bases her argument on the principle of epistemological realism, which emphasizes that people's thoughts and emotions have no bearing on the state of reality. Since there are some realities that people cannot alter by their thoughts, the argument can be taken as sound. For instance, the author contends that there are two categories of facts: physical facts and mental facts (Searle 3). Physical facts are highly independent of the thinking of the society such as brutal facts that comprise of natural resources like rivers and mountains. It is convincing that a perception of anyone cannot change the fact that a mountain is not a river, it is a mountain. Under the mental facts, she argues that they can be either intentional or not. Furthermore, the mental facts are ignited by physical facts and they can arise from an individual perspective or a group of people. It is a true that any mental fact from a group of individuals forms the social facts of a particular location. The information is entirely convincing since people sharing a common belief on a given issue have same social facts.

The Platform of Social Reality

The assigned reading has various interesting facts on the platform of social reality. It is vital to know the connection between the physical facts and the mental facts. The author used her information well to convince the readers on her psychological arguments relating to the building of the perceptions in social realities. The author used convincing examples to show the depth of her research on topics such as social facts arising from common group thinking. However, it is good to claim that people perception of the real world does not matter on the facts in the factual world (Searle 11). The authors\u2019 belief on epistemological realization may be convincingly supported but it is not right for the development of human knowledge. The information can lead to reluctant research physical facts. It is true that the human ideas against epistemological realism are the foundation of research and innovation of different fields in the world. Basing an argument with an example of the fact that a driver license is enough indicators that all human beings can drive is an arguable fact. It is true that there are some people who cannot perfume some functions no matter how easy the procedures may be due various challenges. Many factors behind social reality are closely connected to attitudes. A negative attitude creates a bad social reality while a positive one results in a desirable social reality. Generally, the reading was very useful in the realization on the relation between mental and physical factors based on strong convicting arguments by the author.

The Style Elements Manifested in the Reading

The author succeeded in manifesting several style elements in the reading. In chapter one, the author uses a phrase of \u2018building blocks\u2019. The choice of the phrase shows a use of an architectural metaphor which is appropriate in her context since she is making rational concepts in a series of logical concepts. The author keenness in the choice of words is seen in words such as self-referentiality that stood for physical objects great dependence on peoples\u2019 thinking. The author also used specific examples to emphasis on her teachings on the fact that almost all institutions facts are made by an expression of declaration. She went further giving effective examples such as \u201cwar is hereby declared\u201d. The sentence structure of the reading is fluent in the flow and easy to understand. The writer arranged her ideas within sentences to get create a convincing effect of her arguments. It is worth noting that there are no vague words within the sentences. She accompanied all new words such brute factors with an immediate description of the word to avoid vagueness. The paragraphs have been arranged well with each one explaining new arguments. The overall organization of the reading put it as one of the best reading bin terms of rating styles elements. The reading has been divided into chapters and no arguments have been left without valid examples.

The Existence of Physical and Mental Factors in the Construction of Social Reality

The author\u2019s main claim in the reading is the existence of both physical and mental factors (Searle 2). The aim of the author was to convince his readers that both the mental and the physical factors are needed in the construction of social reality. She wanted to convince the readers that mental factors do not affect the brute factors. On the other hand, mental factors depend on the physical factors as they are the cornerstone in the construction of social realism. The author believed in the theories of epistemological realism and correspondence. According to epistemological theory, she convinces the readers that peoples\u2019 perception does not affect the perception of the real world. She gave an example that mountains and rivers will exist regardless of the existence of the human beings. To bolster the argument, the second theory claims that every statement is rendered untrue if it cannot correspond to the information in the factual world. According to the author, the mental facts are derived from the physical facts. A collective mental fact from a group of people constitutes what she termed as social fact. Given that mental facts depend on physical facts, they are both required in the formation of social reality.

Counterarguments and Flaws in the Author's Claims

The arguments of the readings are so convincing that it is not easy to counter a flaw in the author\u2019s claims. However, there are some flaws such the allegation that the mental factors are depended of the physical factors. Though a physical factor can influence the mentality of an individual, it is worth noting that everything starts from the mind (Searle 17). The idea of self-referentiality suggested that money will lose its functionality once people stop thinking positively on its value. The argument shows that the idea of mental factors entirely depending on physical factors is a flaw. However, mental factors can depend on physical factors on circumstances. The theory of correspondence is vulnerable to a critique. According the theory, all statement must coincide with the information in the real world to be regarded authentic. The problem arises when it comes to verify the degree of factualness of the facts available in the real in the real world. People think differently and some of the statements will never be facts to other people just because they correspond to the established facts in the real world. The author should not ignore the fact that attitude is a strong trait that with an ability to affect both the physical and the mental factors.

Work cited

Searle, John R. The construction of social reality. Simon and Schuster, 1995.