How to Do Things with Words

Born in Lancaster, England, and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College of Oxford University, John Langshaw Austin became a fellow at Oxford in 1933, where he taught until his death in 1960. During World War II, Austin served as a chief organizer for military intelligence of the Allied armies. For his wartime contributions, he received the Order of the British Empire, French Croix de Guerre, and the American Legion of Merit. He was appointed White Professor of moral philosophy at Oxford in 1952. A prominent figure in the development of British analytic philosophy, Austin was greatly influenced by the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Austin emphasized the value of ordinary language in illuminating and resolving philosophical problems. He preferred to do philosophy by attending to the way words function in ordinary language.

Austin pioneered the analysis of speeches and led the linguistic-analysis approach to philosophy, which attempted to resolve philosophical problems by analyzing and clarifying the meanings of words. His methods and results are contained in numerous papers and two succinct books. His major achievements in the school of linguistic analysis include (1) his theory of elocutionary forces in language usage, which overhauled the distinctions between performatives and constatives, and (2) his critique of sense-datum theory in the light of his linguistic discoveries.

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