You can't dabble in the world of philosophy very long without encountering John Searle. One of America's most respected philosophers, Searle did important work on "speech act" theory during the 1960s, then later turned to consciousness and artificial intelligence, out of which came his famous "Chinese room" thought experiment. Searle has taught philosophy at UC-Berkeley since 1959, and, until recently, his courses were only available to matriculated students. But this fall semester, the good folks at Berkeley recorded three courses taught by Searle, and made them available online. We have added them to the Philosophy section of our big collection of Free Online Courses. Or, you can simply access the courses below, using your computer or your smart phone.

Philosophy of Language - iTunes - John Searle, UC Berkeley

- iTunes - John Searle, UC Berkeley Philosophy of Mind - iTunes - John Searle, UC Berkeley

- iTunes - John Searle, UC Berkeley Philosophy of Society - iTunes - John Searle, UC Berkeley

Note: All of these courses can also be accessed on YouTube (in audio format) using this big playlist.