J. L. Austin
J.L. Austin was a British philosopher of language who founded speech act theory and ordinary language philosophy. His meticulous attention to the nuances of everyday language, his distinction between performative and constative utterances, and his analysis of how we do things with words transformed the philosophy of language and influenced linguistics, pragmatics, and legal theory.
Key Ideas
Key Contributions
- ● Founded speech act theory, analyzing how utterances perform actions (promising, commanding, naming) rather than merely describing states of affairs
- ● Distinguished between performative utterances (which do things) and constative utterances (which describe things)
- ● Developed the theory of illocutionary acts — what a speaker does in saying something (asserting, promising, commanding)
- ● Pioneered ordinary language philosophy — the careful analysis of everyday linguistic usage as a philosophical method
Core Questions
Key Claims
- ✓ Not all utterances are true or false — performative utterances (e.g., 'I promise') perform actions rather than describing facts
- ✓ Every utterance involves a locutionary act (saying something), an illocutionary act (doing something in saying it), and a perlocutionary act (producing effects by saying it)
- ✓ Ordinary language embodies important philosophical distinctions that philosophers ignore at their peril
- ✓ Philosophical problems often arise from misunderstanding or misusing ordinary language
Biography
Life
John Langshaw Austin was born on March 26, 1911, in Lancaster, England. He studied classics and philosophy at Oxford, served in British intelligence during World War II, and returned to Oxford as White's Professor of Moral Philosophy. He died of lung cancer on February 8, 1960, at the age of 48.
Legacy
Austin's speech act theory, developed posthumously in How to Do Things with Words (1962), has been foundational for the philosophy of language, pragmatics, and discourse analysis.
Methods
Notable Quotes
"{'text': 'Certainly ordinary language is not the last word: in principle it can everywhere be supplemented and improved upon and superseded. Only remember, it is the first word.', 'source': 'A Plea for Excuses', 'year': 1956}"
Major Works
- A Plea for Excuses Essay (1956)
- How to Do Things with Words Lecture (1962)
- Sense and Sensibilia Lecture (1962)
Influenced
- John Searle · influence
- Jacques Derrida · influence
Influenced by
- Ludwig Wittgenstein · influence
Sources
- How to Do Things with Words (Oxford University Press)
- J.L. Austin by Mark Gustafson
- The Cambridge Companion to Austin (forthcoming)
External Links
Translations
Discussions
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