180049 PS Reading seminar: Speech Act Theory (2021W)

This course will cover some of the most notable texts and discussions on the topic of speech acts. We start by reading J.L. Austin's "How to do things with words" - his seminal William James lectures, held in 1955 in Harvard University. This work is seen as a reaction to earlier philosophy of language that focused on studying the meaning of expressions with the notions of truth and reference. Austin proposes that in order to account for meaning, we should also be looking at what we can do with words. As a simple example, when in the right circumstances, I utter the words "I will pick you up from the airport", then my utterance constitutes an action - namely the act of promising to pick someone up at the airport. By doing so, I am taking on an obligation and that allows for the hearer to hold me responsible for picking her up. In analyzing promises and other speech acts in this way, we describe the meanings of our utterances more precisely than we would by just describing when the sentence is true and what the expressions used refer to.

We will continue by reading work which criticises specific aspects of Austin's initial proposal, and proposes alternative analyses. In the final weeks of the course we will turn to social issues to which speech act theory has been fruitfully applied.

For each session, students should prepare by reading the main text, and on occasion optional background readings. In the seminar sessions, we will focus on identifying and evaluating the claims and arguments put forward by the author. Students have post a discussion question about the assigned reading on Moodle before each seminar.

In the end of the course, the students will have to write an essay outline, which forms the basis of their final essay, and on which they receive feedback. The final essay should incorporate the feedback.