John Searle

Thanks for your feature on UC Berkeley philosophy professor John Searle (“No Limits Hinder UC Thinker,” Dec. 28).

People sometimes look on the University of California (and other universities) only as prestigious paths to better income populated by stereotyped ivory-tower professors out of touch with “reality.” The article on Searle shows the real reason why UC and other universities of its caliber are important. They offer opportunities for people to spend their lives thinking, developing and arguing about ideas that define us as human beings. Students can only benefit from such exposure.

HARRY SMALLENBURG

Burbank

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Searle was easily the finest teaching professor I encountered as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley (in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s), among a very strong bunch that included Glenn Seaborg (Nobel laureate, chemistry) and Richard Eakin (zoology). He has shaped my understanding of the universe to this day.

MICHAEL NOVA

La Jolla