MAJOR PHILOSOPHERS AND THEIR PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE

WEEK-3

Dr. Samina Nadeem

John Langshaw Austin1911 - 1960

• Ended tenure as White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy in 1960

• Speech Acts

• Assessment of utterances as true and false –determining truth conditions

• Works published posthumously based on notes and lectures: a. Sense and Sensibilia(1962a) b. How to do things with words (1962b)

1. Language and Philosophy

i. Language use is a central part of human activity

ii. The study of language is an aide – to the pursuit of philosophical topics. [Austin applied the same standards of truth and accuracy to a philosophical argument – two nuances stand out a) liable to miss distinctions that are made in our ordinary use of language – expressions of illusion and delusion – to hold, infer, show a property. b) “fact is richer than diction” – “words are our tools ….. And we should use clean tools” – our intents and purposes in speaking (meeting Noam Chomsky in 1955)

2. Language and Truth

• Making the same statement on repeatable occasions/ variation in our intents and purposes – true or false depends on in a way that it is understood rather than articulated / may change on different occasions

3. Language and Speech Acts

• Any sentence can be used in performing a variety of linguistic acts.

• The new model is founded on distinctions among various kinds of things speakers do

- The locutionary act: an utterance that can be classified by its phonetic, grammaticl and lexical characteristics – performance of an act by its content

Cont…

• The illocutionary act: classified by its content (locutionary) but also by its force (stating, warning, promising…) I promise that I’ll be home for dinner (promise + statement)/ true-false / happy-unhappy etc

• The Perlocutionary act: an act classifiable by its `….. Consequential effects upon feelings, thoughts, actions “If I warn the ice is thin, I may persuade someone to avoid it or encourage someone to take a risk and so forth..

Cont…

• “The truth or falsity of statement is affected by what they leave out or put in and by their being misleading and so on. … It is essential to realize that true or false, like free – unfree do not stand for anything simple at all; but only for a general dimension of being a right and proper thing to say as opposed to a wrong thing, in these circumstances, to this audience, for these purposes and with these intentions.”

John Locke1632 - 1704

• Human understanding; survey of our own understanding – powers – to see what things were they adapted, ……. To grasp decisions and comprehension… Thus men extending their enquiries beyond their capacities and letting their thoughts wander into those depths where they can find no sure footing

Knowledge and Probability

• Knowledge means agreement or disagreement of ideas

• The understanding faculties are given for conduct of his life and not only speculation

• Through probability, he checks his over-confidence and presumption

• Probable knowledge produces knowledge, argument that provides evidence that leads the mind to judge a proposition

Reason, Faith and Enthusiasm

• Some things could be discovered both by reason and by revelation

• Revelations about matters of fact do not produce as much certainty as having the experience oneself

• Education: preparing people to effectively make decisions in their own lives – to engage in individual self-government

Religious Tolerance

• Restoration – King Charles / Earl of Shaftsbury,

• God’s purposes: God created man and we are in effect God’s property [murder and suicide violate the divine purpose

• Only God can determine which is the true church. Thus skepticism about the possibility of religious knowledge is central to Locke’s argument of religious toleration

Political Philosophy

• Governments were originally instituted by force and that no agreement was involved

• Legitimate government is instituted by the explicit consent of those governed.

• Pushes towards social contract; force by the state to get people to hold certain beliefs or engage in certain ceremonies or practices is illegitimate

Tasks for Assignments

• Ordinary Language Philosophy & Ludwig Wittgenstein

• Austin & John Searle

• Epistemology and philosophy

• Austin & Noam Chomsky

• John Locke and Political Philosophy

References

• J.L. Austin (1911 -1960) by Guy Longworth, University of Warwick