How to Do Things with Words - Softcover

Austin, J L

Softcover

ISBN 10: 177323966X ISBN 13: 9781773239668

Publisher: Must Have Books, 2023

Synopsis

John L. Austin 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 of language that would posit denotative, propositional assertion as the essence of language and meaning.

Edition details

• Publisher: Must Have Books
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 177323966X
• ISBN 13: 9781773239668
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 174
• Editor: Urmson J O