The hiatus of social objects: inscription and imitation as the condition of possibility of the hiatus in relation to Searle’s social ontology

Abstract

This article interprets John Searle´s social ontology as an attempt to explain a hiatus produced by the tension between the subjective genesis and the independent structure —relative to the subjects— that characterizes the ontological status of social objects. The paper examines the internal limits of Searle's proposal and argues that his constitutive rule (X counts as Y in C) is insufficient to account for certain social objects, such as the so-called «freestanding Y terms», whose relevance has increased with the digital explosion of social objects. The article proposes an alternative based on what Maurizio Ferraris terms «inscription» and its transmission enabled through imitation. This proposal not only offers an alternative to Searle's approach but also goes further, showing that the hiatus is not an explanatory obstacle but the condition of possibility of social objects.