Quote #2

Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many things? --Austin, Papers 38.

More from J. L. Austin

  1. The Nicomachean Ethics is only intended as a guide for politicians, and they are only concerned to know what is good, not what goodness mea…
  2. In one sense 'there are' both universals and material objects, in another sense there is no such thing as either: statements about each can…
  3. But surely, speaking carefully, we do not sense 'red' and 'blue' any more than 'resemblance' (or 'qualities' any more than 'relations'): we…
  4. It may justly be urged that, properly speaking, what alone has meaning is a sentence. --Austin, Papers 56.
  5. Faced with the nonsense question 'What is the meaning of a word?' and perhaps dimly recognizing it to be nonsense, we are nevertheless not …
  6. Ordinary language blinkers the already feeble imagination. --Austin, Papers 68.
  7. [I]f we say that I only get at the symptoms of his anger, that carries an important implication. But is this the way we do talk? --Austin, …
  8. But suppose we take the noun 'truth': here is a case where the disagreements between different theorists have largely turned on whether the…

All J. L. Austin quotes