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\address
Professor John Searle
Department of Philosophy
University of California
Berkeley, CA  94720
\body
Dear John:

	Enclosed is a paper about {\it Elephant 2000: A Programming
Language Based on Speech Acts}.  The idea is that computer programs
that communicate with people or with other programs perform
(pseudo?) speech acts, and the specifications of the program
are partly expressable in terms of the proper performance of the
speech acts.  The notions of proper performance are partly taken
from Austin's work and yours.  However, thinking about it from the
computer point of view leads to somewhat different notions of
proper performance for particular kinds of speech act.

	I don't know whether it will interest you.  You might
consider computer speech acts inappropriate to attempt.
I would be much interested in any comments you might have,
especially as regards the performance conditions for particular
kinds of speech acts.  I have not gotten much past the
introduction of your {\it Foundations of Illocutionary Logic}.
Very likely it will affect later forms of the Elephant paper.

	I have written {\it Scientific American} disagreeing with
your article.  Enclosed is a copy.  Of course, I don't know if they'll
print it.

	If you would be interested in a discussion, mainly
concerning problems of formalizing speech acts rather than points
of disagreement, I would gladly come to Berkeley for it.

\closing
Sincerely,
John McCarthy
\endletter
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