Rae Langton

Rae Langton is a philosopher who has taught in Australia, Britain and at MIT and is Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Drawing on J. L. Austin's speech act theory, she argued that speech can do more than express views: it can subordinate and silence. Her account of silencing as illocutionary disablement, where a speaker's words fail to count as the act intended, such as a refusal, reshaped debates about free speech and pornography. She has also written on Kant's metaphysics.

Key ideas

• Some speech is itself an act, such as subordinating, and not merely the expression of an idea.
• Silencing can be illocutionary: a speaker says the words but is prevented from performing the act, such as refusing.
• Free-speech arguments must therefore consider whose speech is enabled and whose is disabled.
• Kant's humility: we cannot know things' intrinsic properties, only their relational powers.

Major works

• "Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts" (1993)
• Kantian Humility (1998)
• Sexual Solipsism (2009)

In the conversation

• Debate Langton is right: you can be silenced while still being allowed to speak Femke Bosman · 5 replies