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John Langshaw Austin (26 March 1911 – 8 February 1960) was a British philosopher of language and leading proponent of ordinary language philosophy, perhaps best known for developing the theory of speech acts. Austin pointed out that we use language to ''do'' things as well as to ''assert'' things, and that the utterance of a statement like "I promise to do so-and-so" is best understood as ''doing'' something—''making a promise—''rather than making an assertion about anything. Hence the name of one of his best-known works ''How to Do Things with Words''. Austin, in providing his theory of speech acts, makes a significant challenge to the philosophy of language, far beyond merely elucidating a class of morphological sentence forms that function to do what they name. Austin's work ultimately suggests that all speech and all utterance is the doing of something with words and signs, challenging a
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
of language that would posit denotative, propositional assertion as the essence of language and meaning.


Life

Austin was born in Lancaster, England, the second son of Geoffrey Langshaw Austin (1884–1971), an
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, and Mary Hutton Bowes-Wilson (1883–1948; ''née'' Wilson). In 1921 the family moved to
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, where Austin's father became the secretary of St Leonards School,
St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourt ...
. Austin was educated at
Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into ...
in 1924, earning a scholarship in
Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
, and went on to study Classics at
Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...
in 1929. In 1930 he received a First in Classical Moderations (Greek and Latin) and in the following year won the Gaisford Prize for Greek prose. In finals in 1933 he received a First in Literae Humaniores (Philosophy and Ancient History). Literae Humaniores introduced him to serious philosophy and gave him a lifelong interest in
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
.Hacker, P. M. S. 'Austin, John Langshaw (1911–1960)'
in
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
, Oxford University Press, 200
online
(Archived 7 June 2021)
He undertook his first teaching position in 1935, as fellow and tutor at
Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the ...
. Austin's early interests included
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
, Kant,
Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ma ...
, and
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
(especially the ''
Theaetetus Theaetetus (Θεαίτητος) is a Greek name which could refer to: * Theaetetus (mathematician) (c. 417 BC – 369 BC), Greek geometer * ''Theaetetus'' (dialogue), a dialogue by Plato, named after the geometer * Theaetetus (crater) Theaetetus ...
''). His more contemporary influences included especially G. E. Moore, John Cook Wilson and H. A. Prichard. The contemporary influences shaped their views about general philosophical questions on the basis of careful attention to the more specific judgements we make. They took our specific judgements to be more secure than more general judgements. It's plausible that some aspects of Austin's distinctive approach to philosophical questions derived from his engagement with the last three. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
Austin served in the
British Intelligence Corps The Intelligence Corps (Int Corps) is a corps of the British Army. It is responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security. The Director of the Intelligence Corps is a br ...
. It has been said of him that, "he more than anybody was responsible for the life-saving accuracy of the D-Day intelligence" (reported in Warnock 1963: 9). Austin left the army with the rank of
lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...
and was honored for his intelligence work with an OBE (Officer of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
), the French
Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...
, and the U.S. Officer of the
Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight u ...
. After the war Austin became White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, as a Professorial Fellow of Corpus Christi College. Publishing little, his influence would largely make itself felt through his teaching in lectures and tutorials and, especially, his famous 'Saturday morning meetings'. Austin visited
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and Berkeley in the mid-fifties, in 1955 delivering the William James Lectures at Harvard that would become ''How to Do Things With Words'', and offering a seminar on excuses whose material would find its way into "A Plea for Excuses". It was at this time that he met and befriended
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
. He was president of the
Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squa ...
from 1956 to 1957. Austin died, shortly after being diagnosed with
lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, mali ...
, at the age of 48. At the time of his death, he was developing a semantic theory based on sound symbolism, using the English gl-words as data.


Work


''How to Do Things with Words''

''How to Do Things with Words'' (1955/1962) is perhaps Austin's most influential work. In contrast to the positivist view, he argues, sentences with truth-values form only a small part of the range of utterances. After introducing several kinds of sentences which he asserts are neither true nor false, he turns in particular to one of these kinds of sentences, which he calls '' performative utterances'' or just "performatives". These he characterises by two features: * Again, though they may take the form of a typical indicative sentence, performative sentences are not used to describe (or "constate") and are thus not true or false; they have no truth-value. * Second, to utter one of these sentences in appropriate circumstances is not just to "say" something, but rather to perform a certain kind of action. He goes on to say that when something goes wrong in connection with a performative utterance it is, as he puts it, "infelicitous", or "unhappy" rather than false. The action which is performed when a 'performative utterance' is issued belongs to what Austin later calls a ''
speech-act In the philosophy of language and linguistics, speech act is something expressed by an individual that not only presents information but performs an action as well. For example, the phrase "I would like the kimchi; could you please pass it to me?" ...
'' (more particularly, the kind of action Austin has in mind is what he subsequently terms the '' illocutionary act''). For example, if you say "I name this ship the ''Queen Elizabeth''," and the circumstances are appropriate in certain ways, then you will have done something special, namely, you will have performed the act of naming the ship. Other examples include: "I take this man as my lawfully wedded husband," used in the course of a marriage ceremony, or "I bequeath this watch to my brother," as occurring in a will. In all three cases the sentence is not being used to describe or state what one is 'doing', but being used to actually 'do' it. After numerous attempts to find more characteristics of performatives, and after having met with many difficulties, Austin makes what he calls a "fresh start", in which he considers "more generally the senses in which to say something may be to do something, or in saying something we do something". For example: John Smith turns to Sue Snub and says 'Is Jeff's shirt red?’, to which Sue replies 'Yes'. John has produced a series of bodily movements which result in the production of a certain sound. Austin called such a performance a ''phonetic act'', and called the act a ''phone''. John's utterance also conforms to the lexical and grammatical conventions of English—that is, John has produced an English sentence. Austin called this a '' phatic act'', and labels such utterances ''phemes''. John also referred to Jeff's shirt, and to the colour red. To use a pheme with a more or less definite sense and reference is to utter a '' rheme'', and to perform a ''rhetic act''. Note that rhemes are a sub-class of phemes, which in turn are a sub-class of phones. One cannot perform a rheme without also performing a pheme and a phone. The performance of these three acts is the performance of a ''locution''—it is the act of saying something. John has therefore performed a locutionary act. He has also done at least two other things. He has asked a question, and he has elicited an answer from Sue. Asking a question is an example of what Austin called an '' illocutionary act.'' Other examples would be making an assertion, giving an order, and promising to do something. To perform an illocutionary act is to use a locution with a certain force. It is an act performed ''in'' saying something, in contrast with a locution, the act ''of'' saying something. Eliciting an answer is an example of what Austin calls a '' perlocutionary act'', an act performed ''by'' saying something. Notice that if one successfully performs a perlocution, one also succeeds in performing both an illocution and a locution. In the theory of speech acts, attention has especially focused on the illocutionary act, much less on the locutionary and perlocutionary act, and only rarely on the subdivision of the locution into phone, pheme and rheme. ''How to Do Things With Words'' is based on lectures given at Oxford between 1951 and 1954, and then at Harvard in 1955.


Performative utterance

According to J. L. Austin, " performative utterance" refers to a not truth-valuable action of "performing", or "doing" a certain action. For example, when people say "I promise to do so and so", they are generating the action of making a promise. In this case, without any flaw (the promise is flawlessly fulfilled), the "performative utterance" is "happy", or to use J. L. Austin's word, "felicitous"; if on the other hand, one fails to do what he or she promised, it can be "unhappy", or "infelicitous". Notice that performative utterance is not truth-valuable, which means nothing said can be judged based on truth or falsity. There are four types of performatives according to Austin: explicit, implicit, primitive, and inexplicit. "How to Do Things With Words", edited by
J. O. Urmson James Opie Urmson (4 March 1915 – 29 January 2012), was a philosopher and classicist who spent most of his professional career at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a prolific author and expert on a number of topics including British anal ...
and Marina Bissau, records Austin's lectures on this topic. In this book, Austin offers examples for each type of performative mentioned above. For explicit performative, he mentioned "I apologize", "I criticize" (Page 83), which are so explicit to receivers that it would not make sense for someone to ask "Does he really mean that?". Inexplicit performatives are the opposite, where the receiver will have understandable doubts. For a primary performative, the example Austin gave is "I shall be there". Compared with explicit performatives, there is uncertainty in implicit performatives. People might ask if he or she is promising to be there with primary performatives, however, this uncertainty is not strong enough as in explicit performatives. Most examples given are explicit because they are easy to identify and observe, and identifying other performatives requires comparison and contrast with explicit performatives.


''Sense and Sensibilia''

In the posthumously published ''Sense and Sensibilia'' (the title is Austin's own, and wittily echoes the title of '' Sense and Sensibility'',
Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
's first book, just as his name echoes hers), Austin criticizes the claims put forward by A. J. Ayer's ''The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940)'', and to a lesser extent,
H. H. Price Henry Habberley Price (17 May 1899 – 26 November 1984), usually cited as H. H. Price, was a Welsh philosopher, known for his work on the philosophy of perception. He also wrote on parapsychology. Biography Born in Neath, Glamorganshire, Wa ...
's ''Perception'' (1932) and G. J. Warnock's ''Berkeley'' (1953), concerning the sense-data theory. He states that perceptual variation, which can be attributed to physical causes, does not involve a figurative disconnect between sense and reference, due to an unreasonable separation of parts from the perceived object. Central to his argument, he shows that "there is no one kind of thing that we 'perceive' but many different kinds, the number being reducible if at all by scientific investigation and not by philosophy" (Austin 1962a, 4). Austin argues that Ayer fails to understand the proper function of such words as "illusion", "delusion", "hallucination", "looks", "appears" and "seems", and uses them instead in a "special way...invented by philosophers." According to Austin, normally these words allow us to express reservations about our commitment to the truth of what we are saying, and that the introduction of sense-data adds nothing to our understanding of or ability to talk about what we see. As an example, Austin examines the word 'real' and contrasts the ordinary meanings of that word based on everyday language and the ways it is used by sense-data theorists. In order to determine the meaning of 'real' we have to consider, case by case, the ways and contexts in which it is used. By observing that it is (i) a substantive-hungry word that is sometimes a (ii) adjuster-word, as well as a (iii) dimension-word and (iv) a word whose negative use "wears the trousers," Austin highlights its complexities. Only by doing so, according to Austin, can we avoid introducing false dichotomies.


''Philosophical Papers''

Austin's papers were collected and published posthumously as ''Philosophical Papers'' by
J. O. Urmson James Opie Urmson (4 March 1915 – 29 January 2012), was a philosopher and classicist who spent most of his professional career at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a prolific author and expert on a number of topics including British anal ...
and Geoffrey Warnock. The book originally contained ten papers, two more being added in the second edition and one in the third. His paper Excuses has had a massive impact on criminal law theory. Chapters 1 and 3 study how a word may have different, but related, senses. Chapters 2 and 4 discuss the nature of knowledge, focusing on performative utterance. Chapters 5 and 6 study the correspondence theory, where a statement is true when it corresponds to a fact. Chapters 6 and 10 concern the doctrine of speech acts. Chapters 8, 9, and 12 reflect on the problems that language encounters in discussing actions and considering the cases of excuses, accusations, and freedom.


"Are there ''A Priori'' Concepts?"

This early paper contains a broad criticism of
Idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ...
. The question set dealing with the existence of ''
a priori ("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ex ...
'' concepts is treated only indirectly, by dismissing the concept of ''concept'' that underpins it. The first part of this paper takes the form of a reply to an argument for the existence of
Universals In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For exa ...
: from observing that we do use words such as "grey" or "circular" and that we use a single term in each case, it follows that there must be a ''something'' that is named by such terms—a universal. Furthermore, since each case of "grey" or "circular" is different, it follows that universals ''themselves'' cannot be sensed. Austin carefully dismantles this argument, and in the process other transcendental arguments. He points out first that universals are not "something we stumble across", and that they are ''defined'' by their relation to particulars. He continues by pointing out that, from the observation that we use "grey" and "circular" as if they were the names of things, it simply ''does not follow'' that there is something that is named. In the process he dismisses the notion that "words are essentially proper names", asking "...why, if 'one identical' word is used, ''must'' there be 'one identical object' present which it denotes". In the second part of the article, he generalizes this argument against universals to address
concept Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by ...
s as a whole. He points out that it is "facile" to treat concepts as if they were "an article of property". Such questions as "Do we possess such-and-such a concept" and "how do we come to possess such-and-such a concept" are meaningless, because concepts are not the sort of thing that one possesses. In the final part of the paper, Austin further extends the discussion to relations, presenting a series of arguments to reject the idea that there is some ''thing'' that is a relation. His argument likely follows from the conjecture of his colleague, S. V. Tezlaf, who questioned what makes "this" "that".


"The Meaning of a Word"

''The Meaning of a Word'' is a polemic against doing
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
by attempting to pin down the ''meaning'' of the words used, arguing that 'there is ''no'' simple and handy appendage of a word called "the meaning of the word (x)"'. Austin warns us to take care when removing words from their ordinary usage, giving numerous examples of how this can lead to error.


"Other Minds"

In ''Other Minds'', one of his most highly acclaimed pieces, Austin criticizes the method that philosophers have used since Descartes to analyze and verify statements of the form "That person S feels X." This method works from the following three assumptions: *(1) We can know only if we intuit and directly feel what he feels. *(2) It is impossible to do so. *(3) It may be possible to find strong evidence for belief in our impressions. Although Austin agrees with (2), quipping that "we should be in a pretty predicament if I did", he found (1) to be false and (3) to be therefore unnecessary. The background assumption to (1), Austin claims, is that if I say that I know X and later find out that X is false, I did not know it. Austin believes that this is not consistent with the way we actually use language. He claims that if I was in a position where I would normally say that I know X, if X should turn out to be false, I would be speechless rather than self-corrective. He gives an argument that this is so by suggesting that believing is to knowing as intending is to promising— knowing and promising are the speech-act versions of believing and intending respectively.


"A Plea for Excuses"

''A Plea for Excuses'' is both a demonstration by example, and a defense of the methods of ordinary language philosophy, which proceeds on the conviction that: "...our common stock of words embodies all the distinctions men have found worth drawing, and the connections they have found worth marking, in the lifetime of many generations: these surely are likely to be more numerous, more sound, since they have stood up to the long test of survival of the fittest, and more subtle, at least in all ordinary and reasonable practical matters, than any that you or I are likely to think up in our armchair of an afternoon—the most favourite alternative method." An example of such a distinction Austin describes in a footnote is that between the phrases "by mistake" and "by accident". Although their uses are similar, Austin argues that with the right examples we can see that a distinction exists in when one or the other phrase is appropriate. Austin proposes some curious philosophical tools. For instance, he uses a sort of word game for developing an understanding of a key concept. This involves taking up a dictionary and finding a selection of terms relating to the key concept, then looking up each of the words in the explanation of their meaning. This process is iterated until the list of words begins to repeat, closing in a "family circle" of words relating to the key concept.


Austin, Wittgenstein and Ryle

Austin occupies a place in philosophy of language alongside the Cantabrigian
Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consi ...
and Austin's fellow Oxonian
Gilbert Ryle Gilbert Ryle (19 August 1900 – 6 October 1976) was a British philosopher, principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase " ghost in the machine." He was a representative of the generation of British o ...
in staunchly advocating the examination of the way words are ordinarily ''used'' in order to elucidate meaning and by this means avoid philosophical confusion. Unlike many ordinary language philosophers, however, Austin disavowed any overt indebtedness to Wittgenstein's later philosophy.


Quotes

* "The theory of truth is a series of truisms" - '' Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. xxiv (1950).'' Philosophical Papers, p. 121, Oxford University Press, second edition (1970) * "Sentences are not as such either true or false" - '' Sense and Sensibilia'' (1962), p. 111 * “It is, of course, not really correct that a sentence ever ''is'' a statement: rather, it is ''used'' in ''making a statement'', and the statement itself is a ‘logical construction’ out of the makings of statements.” - How to Do Things with Words (1955) Lecture 1, page 1 footnote 1 ''The William James Lectures'' at Harvard University. Oxford at the Clarendon press. * "Going back into the history of a word, very often into Latin, we come back pretty commonly to pictures or models of how things happen or are done. These models may be fairly sophisticated and recent, as is perhaps the case with 'motive' or 'impulse', but one of the commonest and most primitive types of model is one which is apt to baffle us through its very naturalness and simplicity." - A Plea for Excuses (1956) Published in ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1956-7.'' Transcribed into hypertext by Andrew Chrucky, 23 August 2004. *"A sentence is made up of words, a statement is made in words.... Statements are made, words or sentences are used." ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. xxiv (1950)'' - Philosophical Papers, p. 120, Oxford University Press, second edition (1970) * "We walk along the cliff, and I feel a sudden impulse to push you over, which I promptly do: I acted on impulse, yet I certainly intended to push you over, and may even have devised a little ruse to achieve it; yet even then I did not act deliberately, for I did not (stop to) ask myself whether to do it or not." - Philosophical Papers, "The Meaning of a Word," p. 195, Oxford University Press, second edition (1970). * "You are more than entitled not to know what the word 'performative' means. It is a new word and an ugly word, and perhaps it does not mean anything very much. But at any rate there is one thing in its favor, it is not a profound word." - " Performative Utterances." Philosophical Papers, p. 233, Oxford University Press, second edition (1970). * "Let us distinguish between acting intentionally and acting deliberately or on purpose, as far as this can be done by attending to what language can teach us." - Philosophical Papers, "Three Ways of Spilling Ink," p. 273, Oxford University Press, second edition (1970). * "Usually it is uses of words, not words in themselves, that are properly called 'vague.'" - ''Sense and Sensibilia'', p. 126, Oxford University Press (1962). * "But then we have to ask, of course, what this class comprises. We are given, as examples, 'familiar objects'--chairs, tables, pictures, books, flowers, pens, cigarettes; the expression 'material thing' is not here (or anywhere else in Ayer's text) further defined. But does the ordinary man believe that what he perceives is (always) something like furniture, or like these other 'familiar objects'—moderate-sized specimens of dry goods?" - ''Sense and Sensibilia'', p. 8, Oxford University Press (1962). * During a lecture at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
attended by American philosopher Sidney Morgenbesser, Austin made the claim that although a in English implies a positive meaning, there is no language in which a double positive implies a negative. To which Morgenbesser responded in a dismissive tone, "Yeah, yeah."The Independent
The Independent, Professor Sidney Morgenbesser: Philosopher celebrated for his withering New York Jewish humour
6 August 2004
The Times
Sidney Morgenbesser: Erudite and influential American linguistic philosopher with the analytical acuity of Spinoza and the blunt wit of Groucho Marx
8 September 2004
(Some have quoted it as "Yeah, right.")


Publications


Books


Authored

* '' Philosophical Papers'', 1961, 1970, 1979, (eds. J. O. Urmson and G. J. Warnock), Oxford:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. (= Austin 1979) * ''How to Do Things with Words: The William James Lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955'', 1962 (eds.
J. O. Urmson James Opie Urmson (4 March 1915 – 29 January 2012), was a philosopher and classicist who spent most of his professional career at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a prolific author and expert on a number of topics including British anal ...
and Marina Sbisà), Oxford: Clarendon Press. * '' Sense and Sensibilia'', 1962 (ed. G. J. Warnock), Oxford:
Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.


Translated

* ''The Foundations of Arithmetic. A logico-mathematical enquiry into the concept of number'' (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1950) by Gottlob Frege, Translation J. L. Austin
UIN: BLL01001320611.


Papers and articles

* 1930s–1940s, "The Line and the Cave in Plato's Republic," reconstructed from notes by J. O. Urmson, in Austin 1979. * 1938ms, extracts in: Price, A. (2018
"J. L. Austin’s Lecture Notes on the Nicomachean Ethics: Making Sense of Aristotle on Akrasia."
In ''
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy ''Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the study of ancient philosophy. The journal is indexed by PhilPapers and the Philosopher's Index.J. M. E. Moravcsik (ed.), ''Aristotle'', New York: Doubleday. Reprinted in Austin 1979. * 1939
"Are There A Priori Concepts?"
'' Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supplementary Volume 18: 83–105. Reprinted in Austin 1979. * 1940ms, "The Meaning of Words," in Austin 1979. * 1946, "Other Minds," ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supplementary Volume 20: 148–187. Reprinted in Austin 1979. * 1950, "Truth," ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supplementary Volume 24: 111–128. Reprinted in Austin 1979. * 1953
"How to Talk—some simple ways"
''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', 53: 227–246. Reprinted in Austin 1979. * 1954ms, "Unfair to Facts," in Austin 1979. * 1956a, "Ifs and Cans," '' Proceedings of the British Academy''. Reprinted in Austin 1979. * 1956b
"Performative Utterances,"
corrected transcript of an unscripted radio talk delivered in the Third Programme of the BBC. In Austin 1979. * 1957
"A Plea for Excuses: The Presidential Address"
''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', 57: 1–30. Reprinted in Austin 1979. * 1958
"Pretending"
''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supplementary Volume 32: 261–278. Reprinted in Austin 1979. * 1962, "Performatif-Constatif," in ''Cahiers de Royaumont, Philosophie No. IV, La Philosophie Analytique'', Les Editions de Minuit. Translated in 1963 as"Performative-Constative" by G. J. Warnock, in C. E. Caton ed., ''Philosophy and Ordinary Language'', University of Illinois Press.also reprinted in
Philosophy of Language: The Central Topics
' 2008, Nuccetelli, Susana (ed.), Seay, Gary (Series ed.)
* 1966, "Three Ways of Spilling Ink", L. W. Forguson (ed.), ''The Philosophical Review'', 75 (4): 427–440. Reprinted in Austin 1979.


See also

*
Epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...
*
Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...
* Performative turn *
Pragmatics In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the int ...
*
Semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
* Adolf Reinach *
Word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...


References


Further reading

* Berlin, I. et al., (ed.) (1973) '' Essays on J.L. Austin'', Oxford: The Clarendon Press. * Cavell, S. (1990), ''The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy'', New York:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. (The major work by one of Austin's most prominent heirs. Takes ordinary language approaches to issues of skepticism, but also makes those approaches a subject of scrutiny). * Fann, K.T., ed. (1969), ''Symposium on J.L. Austin'', New York: Humanities Press. * Friggieri, Joe (1993), " Linguaggio e azione. Saggio su J. L. Austin", Milano: Vita e Pensiero * Friggieri, Joe (1991), "Actions and Speech Actions: In the Philosophy of J. L. Austin", Msida: Mireva Publications * Garvey, Brian, ed. (2004), ''J. L. Austin on Language'', Palgrave, Houndmills (UK). (Includes ''Remembering J. L. Austin'' by Austin's younger sister, Ann Lendrum, and ''Recollections of J. L. Austin'' by John Searle). * Gustafsson, M. and Sørli, R. (2011), ''The Philosophy of J. L. Austin''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (anthology of philosophical essays on Austin's work). * Kirkham, R. (1992, reprinted 1995), '' Theories of Truth: A Critical Introduction''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. . (Chapter 4 contains a detailed discussion of Austin's theory of truth). * Passmore, J. (1966), '' A Hundred Years of Philosophy'', rev. ed. New York: Basic Books. (Chapter 18 includes a perceptive exposition of Austin's philosophical project). * Pitcher, G. (1973), "Austin: a personal memoir" in '' Essays on J.L. Austin'', ed. Berlin, I. et al. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. * Putnam, H. (1999), "The Importance of Being Austin: The Need of a 'Second Näivetē'" Lecture Two in ''The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World'' New York: Columbia University Press. (In arguing for "naive realism", Putnam invokes Austin's handling of sense-data theories and their reliance on arguments from perceptual illusion in ''Sense and Sensibilia'', which Putnam calls "one of the most unjustly neglected classics of analytics philosophy"). * Searle, J. (1969), ''Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Searle's has been the most notable of attempts to extend and adjust Austin's conception of speech acts). * Searle, J. (1979), ''Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. * Soames, S. (2005), ''Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century: Volume II: The Age of Meaning''. Princeton: Princeton UP. (Contains a large section on ordinary language philosophy, and a chapter on Austin's treatment of skepticism and perception in ''Sense and Sensibilia''). * Warnock, G. J. (1969) "John Langshaw Austin, a biographical sketch", in ''Symposium on J. L. Austin'', K.T. Fann (ed), New York: Humanities Press. * Warnock, G. J. (1979), ''Philosophical Papers'', Oxford: OUP (Clarendon Paperbacks), * Warnock, G. J. (1973), "Saturday Mornings" in '' Essays on J.L. Austin'' I. Berlin et al. (ed) Oxford: The Clarendon Press. * Warnock, G. J. (1992), ''J. L. Austin'', London: Routledge.


External links


J. L. Austin
''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' *
"J. L. Austin: A return to common sense"
'' TLS Online 'Footnotes to Plato article by Guy Longworth (on 'Austin's view that philosophers fail to understand everyday speech').
"Guy Longworth on J.L. Austin and Ordinary Language"
''
Philosophy Bites ''Philosophy Bites'' is a podcast series featuring philosophers being interviewed for 15–20 minutes on a specific topic. The series, which has been running since 2007, is hosted by Nigel Warburton, freelance lecturer, and David Edmonds, and h ...
'' (audio) interview.
Lecture and Q&A session by J. L. Austin
in Sweden (October 1959), uploaded by Harvard Philosophy Department to
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