Derrida/Searle: Deconstruction And Ordinary Language

Raoul Moati intervenes in the critical debate that divided two prominent philosophers in the mid-twentieth century. In the 1950s, the British philosopher J. L. Austin advanced a theory of speech acts, or the Òperformative,Ó that Jacques Derrida and John R. Searle interpreted in fundamentally different ways. Their disagreement centered on the issue of intentionality, which Derrida understood phenomenologically and Searle read pragmatically. The controversy had profound implications for the development of contemporary philosophy, which, Moati argues, can profit greatly by returning to this classic debate. In this book, Moati systematically replays the historical encounter between Austin, Derrida, and Searle and the disruption that caused the lasting break between Anglo-American language philosophy and continental traditions of phenomenology and its deconstruction. The key issue, Moati argues, is not whether Òintentionality,Ó a concept derived from HusserlÕs phenomenology, can or cannot be linked to AustinÕs speech-acts as defined in his groundbreaking How to Do Things with Words, but rather the emphasis Searle placed on the performativity and determined pragmatic values of AustinÕs speech-acts, whereas Derrida insisted on the trace of writing behind every act of speech and the iterability of signs in different contexts.

• | Author: Raoul Moati
• | Publisher: Columbia University Press
• | Publication Date: Mar 25, 2014
• | Number of Pages: 160 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 0231166710
• | ISBN-13: 9780231166713