Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing. It embodies, indeed, something better than the metaphysics of the Stone Age,namely, as was said, the inherited experience and acumen of many generations… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
"What is truth?" said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Pilate was in advance of his time. For "truth" itself is an abstract noun, a camel, that is, of a logical construction, which cannot get past the… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
We become obsessed with 'truth' when discussing statements, just as we become obsessed with 'freedom' when discussing conduct...Like freedom, truth is a bare minimum… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
Usually it is uses of words, not words in themselves, that are properly called vague. — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
In the one defense, briefly, we accept responsibility but deny that it was bad: in the other, we admit that it was bad but… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
Are cans constitutionally iffy? Whenever, that is, we say that we can do something, or could do something, or could have done something, is… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
The trouble is that the expression 'material thing' is functioning already, from the very beginning, simply as a foil for 'sense-datum'; it is not… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
The beginning of sense, not to say wisdom, is to realize that 'doing an action,' as used in philosophy, is a highly abstract expression--it… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
Is it true or false that Belfast is north of London? That the galaxy is the shape of a fried egg? That Beethoven was… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing. It embodies, indeed, something better than the… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
Our common stock of words embodies all the distinctions men have found worth drawing, and the connexions they have found worth marketing, in the… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
It should be quite clear, then, that there are no criteria to be laid down in general for distinguishing the real from the not… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
In one sense 'there are' both universals and material objects, in another sense there is no such thing as either: statements about each can… — J. L. Austin Copy Share Image
