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Descriptive fallacy

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have cognitive meaning. Logical positivism aimed to approach philosophy on the model of empirical science, seeking to express philosophical statements in ways to render them verifiable by empirical means. Statements that cannot be verified as either true or false are seen as meaningless. This would
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Based on this distinction of what Austin labeled as constative utterances (statements that describe, which were the focus of logical positivism) and performative utterances (statements that perform or do something), Austin developed his speech act theory to investigate how we do things with words.
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Austin disagreed with the positivist's contention that the only philosophically significant use of language is to describe reality by stating facts, pointing out that speakers do much more with language than merely describe reality. For example, asking questions, making requests or issuing orders,
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exclude many statements about religion, metaphysics, aesthetics, or ethics as meaningless and philosophically uninteresting, making merely emotive or evocative claims expressing one's feelings rather than making verifiable claims about reality.
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are not meaningfully evaluated as true or false but rather by other measures, which would hold that a statement such as "thank you" is not meant to describe a fact and to interpret it as such would be to commit the descriptive fallacy.
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offering invitations, making promises, and many other common statements are not descriptive. Rather, they are performative: in making such statements, speakers do things rather than describe things.
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Austin's label of 'descriptive fallacy' was aimed primarily at
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Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language
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Chapman, Siobhan; Routledge, Christopher, eds. (2009).
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Role of 'descriptive fallacy' in Austin's philosophy
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The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences
147:Honderich, Ted, ed. (2005). "Logical Positivism". 346: 117: 95:The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy 329: 272: 89:Bunnin, Nicholas; Yu, Jiyuan, eds. (2004). 336: 322: 279: 265: 176:Philosophy for Linguists: An Introduction 146: 88: 171: 375:Concepts in the philosophy of language 347: 204: 36:in 1955 in the lectures now known as 288: 231: 20:refers to reasoning which treats a 13: 149:The Oxford Companion to Philosophy 14: 386: 292: 235: 180:. New York: Routledge. pp.  198: 165: 140: 111: 82: 1: 207:"Performative and Constative" 75: 308:. You can help Knowledge by 251:. You can help Knowledge by 205:Hogan, Patrick, ed. (2011). 7: 39:How to Do Things With Words 10: 391: 287: 230: 172:Chapman, Siobhan (2000). 44:performative utterances 247:-related article is a 91:"Descriptive fallacy" 42:. Austin argued that 370:Analytic philosophy 120:"Speech Act Theory" 26:logical proposition 18:descriptive fallacy 57:logical positivism 360:Linguistics stubs 317: 316: 260: 259: 104:978-1-4051-0679-5 382: 365:Verbal fallacies 338: 331: 324: 296: 289: 281: 274: 267: 239: 232: 225: 224: 202: 196: 195: 179: 169: 163: 162: 144: 138: 137: 115: 109: 108: 86: 390: 389: 385: 384: 383: 381: 380: 379: 345: 344: 343: 342: 286: 285: 229: 228: 221: 203: 199: 192: 170: 166: 159: 145: 141: 134: 116: 112: 105: 87: 83: 78: 53: 30:truth condition 12: 11: 5: 388: 378: 377: 372: 367: 362: 357: 341: 340: 333: 326: 318: 315: 314: 297: 284: 283: 276: 269: 261: 258: 257: 240: 227: 226: 219: 197: 190: 164: 157: 139: 132: 110: 103: 80: 79: 77: 74: 52: 49: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 387: 376: 373: 371: 368: 366: 363: 361: 358: 356: 353: 352: 350: 339: 334: 332: 327: 325: 320: 319: 313: 311: 307: 304:article is a 303: 298: 295: 291: 290: 282: 277: 275: 270: 268: 263: 262: 256: 254: 250: 246: 241: 238: 234: 233: 222: 220:9781139144711 216: 212: 208: 201: 193: 191:9780415206594 187: 183: 178: 177: 168: 160: 158:9780199264797 154: 150: 143: 135: 133:9781849724517 129: 125: 121: 114: 106: 100: 96: 92: 85: 81: 73: 69: 65: 62: 58: 48: 45: 41: 40: 35: 31: 27: 23: 19: 310:expanding it 299: 253:expanding it 242: 210: 200: 175: 167: 148: 142: 123: 113: 94: 84: 70: 66: 54: 37: 34:J. L. Austin 17: 15: 355:Logic stubs 302:linguistics 349:Categories 76:References 61:verifiable 22:speech act 217:  188:  184:-143. 155:  130:  101:  300:This 245:logic 243:This 24:as a 306:stub 249:stub 215:ISBN 186:ISBN 153:ISBN 128:ISBN 99:ISBN 16:The 182:106 351:: 213:. 209:. 151:. 126:. 122:. 97:. 93:. 337:e 330:t 323:v 312:. 280:e 273:t 266:v 255:. 223:. 194:. 161:. 136:. 107:.

Index

speech act
logical proposition
truth condition
J. L. Austin
How to Do Things With Words
performative utterances
logical positivism
verifiable
"Descriptive fallacy"
ISBN
978-1-4051-0679-5
"Speech Act Theory"
ISBN
9781849724517
ISBN
9780199264797
Philosophy for Linguists: An Introduction
106
ISBN
9780415206594
"Performative and Constative"
ISBN
9781139144711
Stub icon
logic
stub
expanding it
v
t
e

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