John Langshaw Austin
British philosopher
born March 28, 1911, Lancaster, Lancashire, Eng.
died Feb. 8, 1960, Oxford
Main
British philosopher best known for his individualistic
analysis of human thought derived from detailed study of
everyday language.
After receiving early education at Shrewsbury School and
Balliol College, Oxford, he became a fellow at All Souls
College (1933) and Magdalen College (1935), where he studied
traditional Greco-Roman classics, which later influenced his
thinking. After service in the British intelligence corps
during World War II, he returned to Oxford and eventually
became White’s professor of moral philosophy (1952–60) and
an influential instructor of the ordinary-language movement.
Austin believed that linguistic analysis could provide
many solutions to philosophical riddles, but he disapproved
of the language of formal logic, believing it contrived and
inadequate and often not as complex and subtle as ordinary
language.
Although linguistic examination was generally considered
only part of contemporary philosophy, the analytical
movement that Austin espoused did emphasize the importance
of language in philosophy. Austin’s theoretical essays and
lectures were published posthumously in Philosophical Papers
(1961), Sense and Sensibilia (1962), and How to Do Things
with Words (1962).
