How to do things with words
by J. L. Austin · first published 1962
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2012–2026first – last mentioned
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This work sets out Austin's conclusions in the field to which he directed his main efforts for at least the last ten years of his life. Starting from an exhaustive examination of his already well-known distinction between performative utterances and statements, Austin here finally abandons that distinction, replacing it with a more general theory of 'illocutionary forces' of utterances which has important bearings on a wide variety of philosophical problems.
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…spent a surprising amount of time reading philosophy of language, and it's probably done more for my AI prompting than most of the "prompt engineering" articles I've read. Speech Act Theory, Austin's How to Do Things with Words, and Searle's work changed how I think about prompts. Instead of asking, "What words should I use?", I ask, "What action am I trying to perform?" Is this a request? A commitment? A declaration? An instruction?…
on “The Revenge of the Philosophy Majors” ↗I've long been an Austin fan -- "How To Do Things With Words" is dazzling.
on “J. L. Austin: A return to common sense” ↗…argument is that "I promise" is unique because saying "I promise" is the act of promising. "You promised" is not a promise, it is a description of the act of promising (carried out by someone else). [see How to Do Things with Words: http://www.amazon.com/How-Do-Things-Words-Lectures/dp/067441... ]
on “Pi Is Wrong” ↗…If I mention the word "chair", this will not sit with you as mental residue (surely, contextual and relational analysis apply, but on the whole it will not) — but if you take recourse to JL Austin's "How to Do Things With Words" — you will certainly need to shake off words like "preapopstaticontinentalism". The first point is that a speaker has produced the word, then it comes that decision procedure of whether or not it has…
on “How the secret police tracked my childhood” ↗The works of the philosopher J. Austin, author of _How to Do Things With Words_[1] (and the wonderfully titled _Sense and Sensibilia_[2]), seem eminently more relevant to law, and I hope are cited as well. Austin writes about “performative utterances”[3] such as “I promise I will…
on “Why Do So Many Judges Cite Jane Austen in Legal Decisions?” ↗…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Sexuality The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life Erving Goffman uses the metaphor of theater to explain how we perform roles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Ev... I would say How to Do Things With Words by JL Austin which talks about the power of words to bring things into existence but it really gets into too much detail for me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._L._Austin#How_to_Do_Things_... Similarly…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗