“No remark without remarkableness” is one of the philosopher John Searle’s most profound insights. It may be true, for example, that Professor X is not drunk, but if I say that Professor X is not drunk then something else is going on, and my statement has a more complex meaning. More specifically, by saying— remarking—that Professor X is not drunk, I am implying that there is a reason for saying that he is not drunk. Searle’s important point is that the most plausible reason for saying that Professor X is not drunk is that there is something remarkable— something worth remarking about—about his not being drunk. In some contexts this remarkableness might stem from the way in which a person might be different from other people.
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