Communication and Social Evolution

The conclusion of the former part is that collective intentionality and the intersubjective perspective are insufficient to ensure the norms that can form our entire social life. The universal validity of normativity should be found beyond the objective scale of Intentionality. For Searle, that means an ultimate constitution of political institution. He believes that the state’s authority builds the foundation of other social norms. Under political domination, all social institutions and members can be controlled and guided to the rules that the state has made. In this sense, the universal validity of norms is ensured by the universal exercise of political power. Searle’s view is similar to Hegel’s, who also claims that the state means the highest realization of human ethical life. To summarize their common ideas, we can conclude a “Searle–Hegel thesis,” which proposes that the political authority is the highest and ultimate form of normative order.