Austin on the Philosophy of Perception

Abstract

One way to respond, today, to the work of Austin is to take an idea he had and to build on it, or, perhaps, to take an idea that Austin generated in others and to build on that, or, perhaps, to criticize ideas with these Austinian origins. But I suspect that readers of this collection also share an interest in achieving what one might call an understanding and assessment of Austin himself as a philosopher. Putting it in a rather blunt way, we can ask: what major contributions did Austin make to philosophy? I shall of course only look at one area, as indicated in my title. Now, Austin is a philosopher who never really separated writing philosophy from writing about philosophy itself, and so I shall also say a little about Austin’s attitude to philosophy. The tone of this paper will be historical, general, loose and to some extent speculative. But I hope to assemble some evidence that might influence how you see his work, and through that, Austin himself.