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Quote by J. L. Austin

“A sentence is made up of words, a statement is made in words.... Statements are made, words or sentences are used.”

Quote by J. L. Austin

Author

J. L. Austin (John Langshaw Austin, March 26, 1911 – February 8, 1960) was a prominent British philosopher and a leading figure in ordinary language philosophy. He studied and taught at Oxford University, where he developed his influential theory of speech acts, arguing that language is not merely descriptive but also performative. His seminal work, How to Do Things with Words, introduced the concepts of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts, and distinguished between performative and constative utterances. Austin's meticulous analysis of everyday language challenged traditional philosophical approaches and had a lasting impact on linguistics, philosophy of language, law, and literary theory. He died of lung cancer at age 48. more

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“Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing. It embodies, indeed, something better thanthe metaphysics of the Stone Age, namely, as was said, the inherited experience and acumen of many generations of men.”

Ifs Men Said Age Lasts Language Generations Ordinary Stones Claims Philosophical Metaphysics Last Words Something Better Stone Age Acumen

Author:J. L. Austin

“Next, 'real' is what we may call a trouser-word. It is usually thought, and I dare say usually rightly thought, that what one might call the affirmative use of a term is basic--that, to understand 'x,' we need to know what it is to be x, or to be an x, and that knowing this apprises us of what it is not to be x, not to be an x. But with 'real' (as we briefly noted earlier) it is the negative use that wears the trousers.”

Knows Needs May Real Use Might Next Language Term Knowing Negative Dare Affirmative Trousers

Author:J. L. Austin

“Is it true or false that Belfast is north of London? That the galaxy is the shape of a fried egg? That Beethoven was a drunkard? That Wellington won the battle of Waterloo? There are various degrees and dimensions of success in making statements: the statements fit the facts always more or less loosely, in different ways on different occasions for different intents and purposes.”

“The theory of truth is a series of truisms.”

Truth Theory Truth Is Series Truism

Author:J. L. Austin

“"What is truth?" said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Pilate was in advance of his time. For "truth" itself is an abstract noun, a camel, that is, of a logical construction, which cannot get past the eye even of a grammarian. We approach it cap and categories in hand: we ask ourselves whether Truth is a substance (the Truth, the Body of Knowledge), or a quality (something like the colour red, inhering in truths), or a relation ("correspondence"). But philosophers should take something more nearly their own size to strain at. What needs discussing rather is the use, or certain uses, of the word "true." In vino, possibly, "veritas," but in a sober symposium "verum."”

“It should be quite clear, then, that there are no criteria to be laid down in general for distinguishing the real from the not real.”

Should Real Reality Clear Realism Criteria

Author:J. L. Austin

“There is no one kind of thing that we 'perceive' but many different kinds, the number being reducible if at all by scientific investigation and not by philosophy: pens are in many ways though not in all ways unlike rainbows, which are in many ways though not in all ways unlike after-images, which in turn are in many ways but not in all ways unlike pictures on the cinema-screen--and so on.”

Ifs Way Kind Different Philosophy Turns Numbers Perception Screens Perceive Cinema Pens Different Kinds Investigation Rainbow

Author:J. L. Austin

“The trouble is that the expression 'material thing' is functioning already, from the very beginning, simply as a foil for 'sense-datum'; it is not here given, and is never given, any other role to play, and apart from this consideration it would surely never have occurred to anybody to try to represent as some single kind of things the things which the ordinary man says that he 'perceives.”

Men Trying Kind Play Given Roles Trouble Expression Materials Perception Ordinary Data Perceive Consideration Material Things Ordinary Man Foils

Author:J. L. Austin

“The beginning of sense, not to say wisdom, is to realize that 'doing an action,' as used in philosophy, is a highly abstract expression--it is a stand-in used in the place of any (or almost any?) verb with a personal subject, in the same sort of way that 'thing' is a stand-in for anynoun substantive, and 'quality' a stand-in for the adjective.”

Way Philosophy Action Used Realizing Quality Subjects Expression Abstract Verbs Adjectives

Author:J. L. Austin

“I feel ruefully sure, also, that one must be at least one sort of fool to rush in over ground so well trodden by the angels.”

Feels Wells Fool Angel

Author:J. L. Austin