J. L. Austin
Speaking is a kind of doing: when we promise, apologise or name a ship, our words perform the act rather than describing it.
Placement
Speech act theory: with words we act – we promise, baptize, bet.
Key ideas
- Speech acts
- Performative utterances
Students: John Searle
Influence
Influenced by 2
Aristotle
influenced by ✓
Austin, trained as a classicist, read Aristotle closely and examined his concepts of the good and of happiness (‘Agathon and Eudaimonia in the Ethics of Aristotle’, publ. 1967). J. L. Austin, “Agathon and Eudaimonia in the Ethics of Aristotle”, in J. M. E. Moravcsik (ed.), Aristotle: A Collection of Critical Essays (1967); SEP “John Langshaw Austin”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
G. E. Moore
influenced by
Austin made Moore’s reading of ‘could have done otherwise’ as ‘could, if I had chosen’ (Ethics, 1912) the starting point of ‘Ifs and Cans’ (1956). J. L. Austin, “Ifs and Cans”, Proceedings of the British Academy 42 (1956); G. E. Moore, Ethics (1912); SEP “John Langshaw Austin”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
G. E. Moore › 1873–1958
Influenced 5
H. P. Grice
influenced
Grice, one of Austin’s ‘Saturday mornings’ group, kept its close attention to ordinary usage but distinguished what is said from what is implicated (William James Lectures, 1967). H. P. Grice, “Logic and Conversation” (William James Lectures 1967; publ. 1975); Studies in the Way of Words (1989), “Prolegomena”; SEP “Paul Grice”
Evidence: AI draft
H. P. Grice › 1913–1988
Jürgen Habermas
influenced
Habermas built his universal pragmatics on Austin’s speech-act theory, aligning communicative action with illocutionary and strategic action with perlocutionary effects (‘Was heißt Universalpragmatik?’, 1976). J. Habermas, “Was heißt Universalpragmatik?” (1976); Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns (1981); J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (1962); SEP “Jürgen Habermas”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Jürgen Habermas › 1929–2026
John Searle taught
taught
At Oxford, where he studied from 1952 as a Rhodes Scholar, Searle was taught by Austin as well as by Strawson, Berlin and Hampshire; his Speech Acts (1969) developed Austin’s theory, although he said Austin’s attention to linguistic minutiae left him unmoved. J. R. Searle, interview with T. Crane, CRASSH, University of Cambridge (9 June 2014)
Evidence: AI draft
John Searle › 1932–2025
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
influenced
Sedgwick revisited Austin’s performative utterances and their examples of marriage vows, coining the ‘periperformative’ for utterances clustering around them (Touching Feeling, 2003). E. K. Sedgwick, Touching Feeling (2003); A. Parker and E. K. Sedgwick (eds.), Performativity and Performance (1995); J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (1962)
Evidence: AI draft
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick › 1950–2009
Judith Butler
influenced
Butler reworked Austin’s performative utterances, read through Derrida’s iterability, into a theory of gender performativity and of injurious speech (Bodies That Matter, 1993; Excitable Speech, 1997). J. Butler, Bodies That Matter (1993); Excitable Speech (1997); J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (1962); SEP “John Langshaw Austin”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Judith Butler › b. 1956
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Jacques Derrida
criticised by
In ‘Signature Event Context’ (1971) Derrida objected that Austin excludes ‘non-serious’, cited utterances as parasitic, although iterability belongs to every performative. J. Derrida, “Signature événement contexte” (1971), in Marges de la philosophie (1972); J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (1962), Lecture II; SEP “Jacques Derrida”
Evidence: AI draft
Jacques Derrida › 1930–2004
Criticizes 1
A. J. Ayer
criticised
Austin attacked the sense-datum theory of Ayer’s Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940), above all the argument from illusion (Sense and Sensibilia, lectures published 1962). J. L. Austin, Sense and Sensibilia, ed. G. J. Warnock (1962); A. J. Ayer, The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940); Ayer’s reply: “Has Austin Refuted the Sense-Datum Theory?”, Synthese 17 (1967)
Evidence: AI draft
A. J. Ayer › 1910–1989
Works
Performative utterances: to say is to do.
Against the sense-data theory.
Position
Austin distrusted grand philosophical theories and preferred patient attention to what we actually say – ordinary language, he thought, stores the distinctions of many generations. His most influential discovery: many utterances do not describe anything but perform an action. Whoever says “I promise” or “I name this ship” under the right circumstances is not reporting but promising or naming. Such performative utterances are not true or false but succeed or fail (“infelicities”). From this Austin developed a general theory of speech acts, distinguishing what is said (locution), what is done in saying it (illocution) and the effects it produces (perlocution). Searle systematised the theory, and it reshaped linguistics, legal theory and, through Derrida and Butler, cultural theory.
Life & context
Austin was born in Lancaster in 1911 and studied classics at Oxford. During the Second World War he worked in British military intelligence and contributed to the preparations for the Normandy landings. From 1952 White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford, he led the “Saturday mornings” discussion group. He died in 1960, aged only 48; his main works appeared posthumously.
Further main works
- A Plea for Excuses (1956)
- Philosophical Papers (1961)
Appears in
- Journey ‘The Linguistic Turn’ · Stop 7 of 10
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