The external realism of John Searle

Abstract

This text presents arguments in favor of the plausibility of the external realism defended by John Searle. To do this, the criticisms that Searle directs against the anti-realist positions that he considers most powerful, as well as against the weakest defenses of realism, are formulated first. Then the pair of transcendental arguments are exposed, one against phenomenalist idealism and the other against social constructivism, which Searle considers as the only ones that show the need for the formal ontological presupposition of external realism. At the end, some of the most prominent criticisms that both realist and anti-realist authors have developed against Searlean realism are mentioned.