J.L. Austin played a pivotal role in the linguistic turn in philosophy during the twentieth century, particularly through his influence on both analytic and ordinary language philosophy. Unlike many philosophers who saw the study of language as a philosophical priority, Austin approached it as a matter of common sense and scholarly responsibility. His methods, focused on the systematic study of linguistic expressions, led to significant contributions in areas like lexical semantics, speech act theory, and the philosophy of perception. Austin’s distinction between ‘constative’ and ‘performative’ utterances, and his development of illocutionary acts, paved the way for future work in speech act theory, influencing philosophers such as Searle. In his later work, Sense and Sensibilia, Austin applied his methods to the philosophy of perception, rejecting the view of direct perception of material objects and contributing to the debate on realism in perception. This paper explores Austin’s methods, his theory of illocutionary acts, and his approach to philosophical analysis, highlighting their lasting impact on the philosophy of language and perception.

J.L. Austin, linguistic turn, speech acts

Austin, J. L. (1970). Philosophical Papers (J. O. Urmson & G. J. Warnock, Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1961)

Austin, J. L. (1975). How to Do Things with Words (2nd ed., J. O. Urmson & Marina Sbisà, Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1962)

Austin, J. L. (1962). Sense and Sensibilia (G. J. Warnock, Ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Austin, J. L. (1963). Performative-constative. In C. E. Caton (Ed.), Philosophy and Ordinary Language: Selected Essays (pp. [insert page numbers]). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. (Original work published in Cahiers de Royaumont, Philosophie No. IV: La Philosophie Analytique, 1962)

Frege, G. (1968). The Foundations of Arithmetic: A Logico-Mathematical Enquiry into the Concept of Number (2nd rev. ed., J. L. Austin, Trans.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. *(Original German work: Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik) (1st English ed. published 1950)

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