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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Reading group: J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words
Austin gave these as the William James Lectures at Harvard in 1955, and they were published after his death, in 1962, from his notes. Twelve short lectures. It is one of the most readable classics in philosophy of language, and it has…
Started by Sam Ellery5 replies