How to Do Things with Words: Second Edition (The William James Lectures) 2nd Edition

by J. L. Austin (Author), J. O. Urmson (Editor), Marina Sbisà (Editor)

20 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0674411524

ISBN-10: 0674411528

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John L. Austin was one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century. The William James Lectures presented Austin's conclusions in the field to which he directed his main efforts on a wide variety of philosophical problems. These talks became the classic How to Do Things with Words.

For this second edition, the editors have returned to Austin's original lecture notes, amending the printed text where it seemed necessary. Students will find the new text clearer, and, at the same time, more faithful to the actual lectures. An appendix contains literal transcriptions of a number of marginal notes made by Austin but not included in the text. Comparison of the text with these annotations provides new dimensions to the study of Austin's work.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Immensely worth reading...What is made available here is a choice work by one of the most acute and original minds that England has produced in our time...The myth that Oxford philosophers in general, and Austin in particular, do nothing but examine the details of ordinary linguistic usage should be exploded once and for all by this new book. (Times Literary Supplement)

Austin had an extraordinarily keen ear for the subtleties of English and a remarkable sensitivity to the aptness of one expression as opposed to another in a given linguistic situation. To read him is not only a pleasure; it is also to learn much about English and to gain a new respect for its proper use. (The Massachusetts Review)

About the Author

J. L. Austin was a British philosopher of language.

Series: The William James Lectures (Book 5)
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Harvard University Press; 2 edition (September 1, 1975)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0674411528
ISBN-13: 978-0674411524
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 7.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 20 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Philosophy > Logic
- #31 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Linguistics
- #39 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Logic & Language

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Jacob

Good, technical info but out of control narrative

January 6, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

In this review I will summarize Austin's argument and end with some reflections and criticisms:

Summary

This is a primer in speech-act theory. Austin highlights the possibility of a category of speech in which statements are neither true, nor false, but performative. Some statements do things; more specifically, when spoken they create a new situation.

In order to qualify as a performative, a statement must meet certain conditions (pp. 12ff; a statement must be made in good faith by someone who has the authority to make it, etc.) and must be made within a horizon of convention: for example, we understand that a minister or a justice of the peace has the authority to create a married-status and not just any old person off of the street.

One of Austin's strengths in this book is he is able to return to the main argument and sum up lines of thought (the weakness is his continuous getting off of topic. Here are three basic definitions which are crucial to his project.

Locutionary Act: Uttering a certain sentence with a certain sense and reference; equivalent to meaning (109).
Perlocutionary Act: consequences of the act performed
Illocution: the act performed; has a conventional force (109).

Reflection

So far, so good. Speech-act theory is rather simple in the broad contours, but as Austin demonstrates, it suffers the risk of a thousand qualifications. He then gets technical on how a promise/performative may be void, illicit, etc., and this runs for about 6 chapters. By the end the reader wonders, “Why bother?”

Speech-Act theory is a useful way of describing events in our world. As such, I hold to it. If one tries to make it an architectonic theory, then it spins out of control, as Austin himself demonstrated (probably against his intentions). The main drawback with this book, as others have pointed out, is that Austin can't stay on topic for more than two paragraphs.

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Chauncey Bell

The Secret Language of Service

August 19, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

We live in language, listening and speaking with each other. Every human invention happens in language. Our concerns, our institutions, our dreams, our families and communities, and our projects are constructed first in language. This book is about how that happens (not just in English, but in every language).

Here is the fundamental structure of the language of business, innovation, design, politics, social relations, the construction of trust in our communities, and much more.

Our children study language throughout their school years, and no one ever teaches them that if they want to cause something to happen, they must make a request or an offer. If, in our notes and letters, meetings and speeches, arguments and efforts to convince and market, we don't do the action of uttering or communicating a request or an offer, then whatever actions that occur afterwards are all but accidental. "Requests" and "Offers" are two classes of Professor Austin's performative verbs. We teach our children how to be politically correct in their speaking, but not how to make things happen. How can that be?

I think that should be enough to build more interest in this wonderful little book. I recommend it highly.

However, there are two more things that I want to say about the book.

First, I urge the potential reader not to be deceived. This jewel is walking around in a disguise. The book is assembled from talks that Austin gave in 1955 at Harvard University. The language of "the analytic philosophy of language" has served as a successful strategy for hiding the profound relevance of Austin's work for our everyday lives.

From the picture of him available on the Internet, John Langshaw Austin was the perfect 20th Century Oxford Don -- a super-geek. What is not visible there is that he was an enormously pragmatic and wise man. For a key example, during World War II, Austin led the Allied intelligence efforts leading up to D Day.

Second, and much more important for our world today, in this little book, Austin opens for us the language of the era that we have now entered -- the era of services. For the last few decades the economy of the United States has been predominantly an economy of services. Over 90% of the exchanges that make up our economy come from services. (Remember that inside manufacturing, agribusiness, and extraction industries are vast service networks.) Our business leaders have not yet discovered that the language that we currently use for understanding what we do in business is archaic and obsolete. We speak of inputs, processes, and outputs, flows of things and data, resources, assets, and information.

Services are not constructed in the same way that clocks and automobiles are constructed. They are not things. They are social constructions, built in networks of requests and promises, and in trusting relationships between people speaking and listening to each other, today increasingly through electronic media.

This is a book about the language of service.

I recommend it.

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Most recent customer reviews

Fernando Carlos Farah

i liked the scientific and technical approach to the main issues ...

If, on one hand, i liked the scientific and technical approach to the main issues of the book, on the other it dealt with grassroots grammar and I had already studied that at...Read more

Published 1 year ago

Librum

Very interesting

Book is an edited series of lectures on a fascinating issue in philosophy of language: the status of 'performative' language, instances in which the saying of a thing is...Read more

Published 1 year ago

Steven H Propp

A MINOR "CLASSIC" OF 20TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY

John Langshaw Austin (1911-1960) was a British philosopher of language, who taught at Oxford University.Sense and Sensibilia and Philosophical Papers Read more

Published on December 15, 2014

Commuting Learner

So happy to have this.

Very clean copy, cheers

Published on December 9, 2014

Caro

The whole book reads like a physics problem

Save your time amd read stanley fish's How To Write A Sentence. This book is technical to the point of losing almost all meaning and substance

Published on August 21, 2014

Jeffrey Rubard

Mod and Great

John Langshaw Austin -- the "L." is not optional, on account of the early modern philosopher of law John Austin -- was one of the great English prose stylists of the 20th...Read more

Published on July 13, 2014

Lisa

gift

have no idea if liked,it was a gift.
it came promptly and was good .
no other comments for this

Published on May 10, 2014

Marim D. Charry

How To Do Things With Words

Very interesting approach and analysis. I find Austins comments extremely helpful for understanding the power of words. This will be very helpful to me in speaking and writing.

Published on August 10, 2013

Hugo Saravia

John Austin's "How to Do Things with Words"

John Austin was an extraordinary philosopher. His "How to Do Things with Words" represents an important contribution to XX century philosophy.Read more

Published on August 3, 2013

Donna

Great Little Book

This is a great little book at a great big price. I didn't realize it was so little or I probably wouldn't have paid so much for it, but it's what my son wanted for Christmas.Read more

Published on November 23, 2012

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