John Langshaw Austin: biography of this philosopher

This English thinker formulated the theory of speech acts.

The philosophy of language is one of the most interesting currents born in modern philosophy and one of its great representatives is the protagonist of this article.

John Langshaw Austin is perhaps the greatest of the philosophers of language along with John Searle, Noam Chomsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Born and raised in the UK, he is one of the authors, along with Searle, of the theory of speech acts, contributing the three main categories to the way we human beings utter our sentences.

His life, although short, has been one of the most influential in his field. Let's take a closer look at his interesting story in this biography of John Langshaw. biography of John Langshaw Austin.

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John Langshaw Austin biography

The life of this philosopher of language is characterized neither by prolific publishing nor, unfortunately, by having lived many years. Even so, this British thinker knew how to make the most of his years of life, being the creator of one of the most important theories in the field of psycholinguistics. the creator of one of the most important theories in the field of psycholinguistics, as well as having received a number of awards for his work.He was also the recipient of several awards.

Early years and training

John Langshaw Austin was born in Lancaster, England, on March 26, 1911.

In 1924 he enrolled at Shrewsbury School, where he studied the great classics of all times. He would later study classical literature at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1929.

In 1933 he received a degree in classical literature and philosophy, as well as the Gaisford Prize for Greek prose.. He finished these studies at the top of his class. In 1935 he began teaching at Magdalen College, also in Oxford. Later he would enter the field of Aristotle's philosophy, being a great reference throughout his life.

2. Formation of his thought

But among his earliest interests was not only Aristotle (later on, between 1956 and 1957, Austin was president of the Aristotelian Society of Aristotle), between 1956 and 1957 Austin was president of the English Aristotelian Society). He also tackled Kant, Leibniz and Plato. As for his more contemporary influencers one can find G. E. Moore, H. A. Prichard and John Cook Wilson.

The vision of the more modern philosophers shaped his way of looking at the main issues of Western thought.It was from this time that he began to take a special interest in how human beings make specific judgments.

During World War II, Austin served his country by working in British Intelligence. In fact, it has even been said that was one of the most responsible for the preparation of the D-Day, that is to say, the Normandy Landings..

John Austin left the army with the rank of lieutenant colonel and was awarded for his work in intelligence with the Order of the British Empire, the French War Cross and the American award of the Legion of Merit.

3. Final years

After the war, Austin worked at Corpus Christi College, Oxford as a professor of moral philosophy..

During his lifetime, Austin was not particularly prolific in terms of publications (he published only seven articles), however, this did not prevent him from becoming famous. His influence was mainly due to the fact that he gave very interesting lectures. In fact, he became famous for giving some of them on Saturday mornings, something that for a professor of the time was quite striking.

Thanks to this, and to the increase of his popularity, John Austin was visiting universities such as Harvard and Berkeley in the 50s.

It is from these trips that the material for writing How to do things with words a posthumous work that gathers, in essence, all his philosophy of language. Also It was also during these years that he had the opportunity to meet Noam Chomsky, who became close friends.and became close friends.

Sadly for the world of linguistics, John Langshaw Austin died at the age of 48, on February 8, 1960, shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Philosophy of language and its method

Austin felt little satisfaction with the way philosophy was being conducted in his time, especially with logical positivism. According to this author, logical positivism was responsible for producing philosophical dichotomies that, instead of making things clear and helping to understand the world around us, seemed to oversimplify reality and tended towards dogmatism.

Austin developed a new philosophical methodology, which would later lay the foundations of the philosophy based on ordinary language. John Austin did not consider this method to be the only valid one, however, it did seem to bring Western philosophers closer to the resolution of such long-standing questions as freedom, perception and responsibility.

For Austin the starting point had to be to analyze the forms and concepts used in worldly languageand to recognize their limitations and biases. This would make it possible to unveil those errors that had been made since time immemorial in philosophy.

According to this author, all the distinctions and connections established by human beings are found in everyday language. It is as if words had evolved through natural selection, with those most adapted to the linguistic context surviving, and those that allow us to describe the world we humans perceive. This would be influenced by each culture, expressing itself in a different way of seeing things.

Speech act theory

The theory of speech acts is surely John Austin's best known contribution to the field of the philosophy of language. Speech act theory is a theory of how intentions are manifested. how communicative intentions are manifested.. In this theory, the concepts of intention and action are incorporated as fundamental elements of the uses of language.

In their time, most philosophers were interested in how formal language worked, i.e., that which is formed with logical rules. An example of formal language would be the following: mammals suckle, dogs suckle, therefore, dogs are mammals. However, Austin chose to describe how everyday language is used to describe and change reality.

One of the most interesting aspects of Austin's interest in ordinary language was the realization of how, depending on what is said, it is possible to create a situation in and of itself.. That is, there are expressions that, when uttered, are themselves what they are describing being done. To be better understood:

Being at a wedding, the priest who officiates the ceremony, after giving the rings to the bride and groom, says aloud: 'I hereby declare you husband and wife'. By saying 'I declare' the priest is not describing a reality, he is creating it. By his words he has made two people officially a married couple. And he has done this by means of a speech act, in this case, a declaration.

Thus, speech acts are understood as those linguistic expressions, both oral and written, which when uttered imply a change in reality by themselves, that is, they are what they say they are doing.

Within Austin's theory, by speech act, a term that was originally used by John Searle and Peter Strawson, reference is made to utterances that constitute, by themselves, an act which implies some kind of change in the relationship between interlocutorsas we have seen in the case of the wedding.

Within the same theory, John Austin distinguishes among three types of acts:

1. locutionary speech acts.

They are simply saying something. It is the name given to the act of a human being saying or writing something, regardless of whether it is true or not or whether it constitutes in itself a change in reality.

2. Ilocutionary speech acts

These are acts that describe the intention of the speaker when they are enunciated. For example, a case of an illocutionary act would be that of congratulating, which in itself implies doing an act, which is to congratulate.

3. Perlocutionary speech acts

These are the effects or consequences that result from the act of uttering an illocutionary act, that is, the response of having said something, whether it is a congratulation, insult, order....

They are acts performed by the act of uttering something.. They reflect the result of an act enunciated by the speaker which has produced an effect on the listener.

It is not enough to recognize the intention of the speaker, but the receiver must also believe it. They are not executed by the simple fact of their utterance.