J. L. Austin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
J. L. Austin
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Austin (1951) by Ramsey & Muspratt
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| Born | 26 March 1911 Lancaster, UK
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| Died | 8 February 1960 (aged 48) Oxford, UK
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| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic Ordinary language philosophy/linguistic philosophy Correspondence theory of truth |
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Main interests
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Philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, ethics, philosophy of perception |
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Notable ideas
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Speech acts, performative utterance, descriptive fallacy, linguistic phenomenology |
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Influences
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Influenced
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John Langshaw Austin (born March 26, 1911 – died February 8, 1960) was a British philosopher. He was a key thinker in the ordinary language philosophy movement. He is best known for developing the idea of speech acts.
Austin showed that we use language to do things, not just to say things. For example, when you say "I promise to do something," you are actually making a promise. You are not just talking about it. This idea is explored in his famous book, How to Do Things with Words. Austin's work changed how people thought about language. He suggested that all speaking is a way of doing something with words.
Contents
Life and Education
Austin was born in Lancaster, England, in 1911. His father was an architect. In 1921, his family moved to Scotland.
Austin went to Shrewsbury School and then studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford. He was very good at Greek and Latin. In 1933, he earned a top degree in Philosophy and Ancient History. This introduced him to serious philosophy and made him interested in Aristotle for life. He started teaching at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1935.
Influences on Austin's Thinking
Austin was interested in old philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, Leibniz, and Plato. He was also influenced by more recent thinkers like G. E. Moore and H. A. Prichard. These philosophers looked closely at how we make specific judgments. They believed these specific judgments were more reliable than general ones.
Austin's War Service
During World War II, Austin worked in the British Intelligence Corps. People said he was very important for the accurate information used on D-Day. He left the army as a lieutenant colonel. He received honors like the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) and the French Croix de Guerre.
After the War
After the war, Austin became a professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford. He did not publish many books. Instead, he shared his ideas mostly through teaching. He gave lectures and held famous 'Saturday morning meetings'.
In 1955, Austin visited Harvard and Berkeley. He gave lectures at Harvard that later became his book How to Do Things with Words. He also met and became friends with Noam Chomsky. Austin was the president of the Aristotelian Society from 1956 to 1957.
Austin died at age 48 from lung cancer.
Key Ideas and Works
How We Do Things with Words
How to Do Things with Words (published in 1962 after his death) is Austin's most famous book. In it, he argues that many sentences are not simply true or false.
He introduced the idea of performative utterances. These are sentences that:
- Are not true or false, even if they look like normal statements.
- Perform an action when spoken in the right situation.
If something goes wrong with a performative utterance, Austin called it "unhappy" or "infelicitous," not false.
For example, if you say "I name this ship the Queen Elizabeth" during a naming ceremony, you are actually performing the act of naming. Other examples include: "I promise to be there" or "I declare you husband and wife." In these cases, the words are not just describing an action; they are doing the action.
Austin later explained that saying something involves different types of acts:
- Locutionary act: This is the act of simply saying something. It involves making sounds, using words, and forming a grammatically correct sentence. For example, saying "Is Jeff's shirt red?"
- Illocutionary act: This is the act performed in saying something. It's the force or purpose of your words. Asking a question, making a promise, giving an order, or asserting something are all illocutionary acts. When you say "Is Jeff's shirt red?", you are performing the illocutionary act of asking a question.
- Perlocutionary act: This is the act performed by saying something. It's the effect your words have on the listener. If someone answers your question, that's a perlocutionary act.
Most of Austin's work focused on the illocutionary act.
Performative Utterances Explained
A "performative utterance" is an action you perform by speaking. When you say "I promise to do so and so," you are creating the action of making a promise. If the promise is kept, the utterance is "happy" or "felicitous." If it's not kept, it's "unhappy" or "infelicitous." Remember, these statements are not true or false.
Austin described four types of performatives:
- Explicit performatives: These are very clear, like "I apologize" or "I criticize." It's obvious what action is being done.
- Implicit performatives: These are less clear. For example, "I shall be there" could be a promise, but it's not as direct as "I promise to be there."
Sense and Sensibilia
In his book Sense and Sensibilia (published after his death), Austin looked at how philosophers use words like "illusion" or "appears." He argued that these words are often used in a special, confusing way by philosophers. He believed that these words usually help us express doubts about what we see. Austin thought that understanding how we use words in everyday life is key to solving philosophical problems.
For example, he looked at the word "real." He showed that its meaning changes depending on how and where it is used. He argued that we need to look at each situation to understand what "real" means.
A Plea for Excuses
In "A Plea for Excuses," Austin showed how useful ordinary language philosophy can be. He believed that our everyday words contain many important distinctions that people have found useful over generations. These distinctions are often more subtle and sound than ideas thought up by philosophers in their armchairs.
He gave an example of the difference between "by mistake" and "by accident." Even though they seem similar, Austin showed that there are specific situations where one phrase fits better than the other.
Austin also suggested a way to understand concepts. He would take a key word, look it up in a dictionary, and then look up the words used in its definition. He would keep doing this until the words started to repeat, forming a "family circle" of related terms.
Austin, Wittgenstein, and Ryle
Austin, along with Wittgenstein and Gilbert Ryle, believed in studying how words are ordinarily used. They thought this was the best way to understand meaning and avoid confusion in philosophy. Austin, however, did not openly say he was influenced by Wittgenstein's later ideas.
See also
In Spanish: J. L. Austin para niños
- Epistemology
- Linguistics
- Performative turn
- Pragmatics
- Semantics
- Adolf Reinach
- Word
