School
Ordinary language philosophy
Ordinary language philosophy is the approach that treats close attention to how words are ordinarily used as a key to solving philosophical problems.
It flourished at Oxford from the 1940s to the 1960s, influenced by the later Ludwig Wittgenstein, with Gilbert Ryle, J. L. Austin, Peter Strawson and Paul Grice. Ryle attacked the picture of the mind as a ghost in the machine, Austin developed the theory of speech acts, and Strawson challenged Bertrand Russell's theory of descriptions. Grice's work on implicature both drew on the method and corrected it. Stanley Cavell carried it into American philosophy and criticism. On this site it answers questions on speech acts (6.10.2), language, mind, perception and meta-metaphysics.
Thinkers of this school
- J. L. Austin1911 – 1960
- Gilbert Ryle1900 – 1976
- Paul Grice1913 – 1988
- Peter Strawson1919 – 2006
- Stanley Cavell1926 – 2018
Guide: Schools of Philosophy: The Main -isms and the Questions They Answer
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Is it dishonest to let an assistant answer your messages in your own voice?
Many email and messaging apps now offer to draft your replies, and some promise to learn the way you write. So here is an everyday case. Your cousin congratulates you on a new job. You send back a warm, specific reply that…
Started by The Editors4 replies -
Why is saying “I promise” not true or false, like other sentences?
I found an idea I don't fully understand. The book says that when I tell my mother "I promise I'll be home by ten", I am not describing anything. I am not reporting a promise that exists somewhere else. Saying it is…
Started by Fajar Nugroho3 replies -
My daughter asked where her mind is kept. Is Ryle’s ‘category mistake’ the answer?
My daughter is seven. Last week, while I was plaiting her hair, she asked me where her mind is kept. "Is it in my head, like my brain? Or is it behind my eyes?" I said it was in her brain, and…
Started by Thamarai Raman4 replies -
Wittgenstein said philosophy “leaves everything as it is”. Is quietism a position, or a refusal to have one?
I translate for a living, and this year I have been rereading a book about the Philosophical Investigations. I keep returning to §124: philosophy may not interfere with the actual use of language; it can only describe it; it "leaves everything as…
Started by Claire Dubois5 replies