Philosophical Papers

by J.L. Austin, G.J. Warnock (Editor), J.O. Urmson (Editor)

The late J.L. Austin's influence on contemporary philosophy was substantial during his lifetime, and has grown greatly since his death in 1960. This third edition of Philosophical Papers , the first edition of which was published in 1961, includes all of Austin's published papers (except "Performatif-Constatif") as well as a new essay entitled "The Line and the Cave in Plato's Republic ", which has been reconstructed from Austin's notes.

Genres: Philosophy, Language, Nonfiction, Linguistics, Canon

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

John Langshaw Austin (March 26, 1911 – February 8, 1960) was a British philosopher of language, born in Lancaster and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford University. Austin is widely associated with the concept of the speech act and the idea that speech is itself a form of action. His work in the 1950s provided both a theoretical outline and the terminology for the modern study of speech acts developed subsequently, for example, by (the Oxford-educated American philosopher) John R. Searle, William P. Alston, François Récanati, Kent Bach, and Robert M. Harnish.

After serving in MI6 during World War II, Austin became White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford. He occupies a place in philosophy of language alongside Wittgenstein in staunchly advocating the examination of the way words are used in order to elucidate meaning. Unlike many ordinary language philosophers, however, Austin disavowed any overt indebtedness to Wittgenstein's later philosophy. His main influence, he said, was the exact and exacting common-sense philosophy of G. E. Moore.

He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1956 to 1957.

Reviews

[Mattschratz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading most philosophers is like being in the part of the hardware store where they display the faucets; with Austin, you get in among the pipes (in this analogy, language = plumbing).

[Blakely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linguistic phenomenology.

[T. Tokunaga · Rating 3 out of 5]

【Dreadful Sarcasm / Philosophical Papers / JL Austin】

JL Austin is probably the most acclaimed analytic philosopher in literary studies. Let's talk about his style first. To compare, Russell discussed logically. Whitehead discussed intuitively. Carnap discussed accurately. Ayer discussed pensively. Popper discussed simply. Whereas JL Austin, from his younger days (circa 1939) to his later career (circa 1958) wrote really ironically, even with a sense of sarcasm. The first paper in this book written in 1939 was enough to unsettle me by its sarcasm on traditional philosophy.

Even though Ayer was known for his polemic style, he was not sarcastic but serious and pensive in criticizing (or even "roasting" the traditional philosophy). However, in this book by JL Austin, you'd often come across a sarcastic or even derogatory language intentionally used by the author as a speech act, and it's more than unsettling to see other philosophers including both non-analytic and analytic ones (including GE Moore).

Even though his criticism on Moore in particular has a great value as a study asserting that "if" has a more variety in its appearance and use than just an insinuation of "can," his boastful style in saying "we ever can get rid of philosophy, by kicking it upstairs" (P180) even made me wince at the page despite I somewhat share his opinion about the comprehensive studies of languages.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but dated, in the sense that the interest of the questions he discusses was - I suppose - clear in the period in which they were written (or delivered as talks, or whatever) but it's much less so now. The result is that much of it comes across like the most footling, albeit high-class, pedantry. I don't think it's lost the relevance that it had, but that that relevance is now obscure. Not JL's fault, he's been dead these 60 years or so. But probably best read with guidance.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh. I also like this book. It help me write my discussion board post because after reading I had a lot of thoughts about everything. It's really useful and interesting for reading book.

[Gary Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

especially, "A Plea for Excuses"