Mind, language, and civilization are natural products of the basic facts of the
physical world described by physics, chemistry and biology. Searle explains how
language creates and maintains the elaborate structures of human social institut
ions. These institutions serve to create and distribute power relations that are
pervasive and often invisible. These power relations motivate human actions in
a way that provides the glue that holds human civilization together. Searle show
s how this account illuminates human rationality, free will, political power, an
d human rights. Our social world is a world created and maintained by language.
