To argue, to profess, to declare is always to exert a certain force over others-and in doing so, to unleash an unknowable string of potential effects. “When we issue any utterance whatsoever, are we not ‘doing something’?” he asked. He began by trying to ruthlessly categorize language, cordoning off descriptive, true/false statements like, for example, “the grass is green” from performative ones like “I christen this ship.” But he soon realized that the distinction between these categories is easily collapsed. Austin provided us with a thorough appraisal of all the different ways that speech can constitute action. We know this intuitively, and yet it was not until 1962 that the philosopher J.L. Utterances do things-they alter our conditions and those of others.
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