20th century · 1911–1960
Who influenced J. L. Austin?
Influences and legacy
How to do things with words: saying is often doing — performative utterances.
J. L. Austin was influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, and went on to influence John Searle. That is 2 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Who was J. L. Austin?
J. L. Austin, a leading figure of ordinary language philosophy, developed the theory of speech acts. He pointed out that we use language to do things as well as to state things: saying "I promise" is making a promise, not describing one.
Hence the title of his best-known book, How to Do Things with Words. His work suggests that every utterance is an act, which challenges the idea that stating facts is the essence of language.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced J. L. Austin?
1 direct influence on this map, earliest first.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889–1951
Who did J. L. Austin influence?
1 thinker on this map draws directly on J. L. Austin.
- John Searle 1932–2025
The line of teachers behind J. L. Austin
The longest documented line of influence ending at J. L. Austin runs 27 generations back, to Thales of Miletus.
- Thales of Miletus
- Anaximenes of Miletus
- Anaxagoras
- Socrates
- Antisthenes
- Diogenes of Sinope
- Crates of Thebes
- Zeno of Citium
- Seneca
- Tertullian
- Augustine of Hippo
- Anselm of Canterbury
- Peter Lombard
- Thomas Aquinas
- René Descartes
- Thomas Hobbes
- Baruch Spinoza
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Christian Wolff
- Immanuel Kant
- Johann Gottlieb Fichte
- F. W. J. Schelling
- Georg W. F. Hegel
- T. H. Green
- F. H. Bradley
- Bertrand Russell
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- J. L. Austin
Two steps away from J. L. Austin
Indirect influences
Contemporaries of J. L. Austin
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of J. L. Austin, with no direct line between them.
- A. J. Ayer 1910–1989
- Wilfrid Sellars 1912–1989
- Albert Camus 1913–1960
- Simone Weil 1909–1943
- Simone de Beauvoir 1908–1986
- Claude Lévi-Strauss 1908–2009
- W. V. O. Quine 1908–2000
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1908–1961
J. L. Austin by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 1
- Direct followers
- 1
- Thinkers upstream
- 121
- Thinkers downstream
- 1
- Wikipedia languages
- 42 — #58 of 84 among 20th-century philosophers
- Card rarity
- Rare
Questions about J. L. Austin
- Who influenced J. L. Austin?
- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
- Who did J. L. Austin influence?
- John Searle.
- When did J. L. Austin live?
- 1911–1960. The map files J. L. Austin under the 20th century.
- How rare is the J. L. Austin card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on J. L. Austin in 42 languages, which makes it a Rare card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More 20th-century philosophers
- Jean-Paul Sartre 1905–1980
- Albert Camus 1913–1960
- Max Weber 1864–1920
- Simone de Beauvoir 1908–1986
- Bertrand Russell 1872–1970
- Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889–1951
- Martin Heidegger 1889–1976
- Umberto Eco 1932–2016