Performative contradiction

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A performative contradiction (German : performativer Widerspruch) arises when a speech-act rests on non-contingent presuppositions that contradict the proposition asserted in that speech-act. [1]

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The term was coined by Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel, who attribute the first elaboration of the concept to Jaakko Hintikka, in his analysis of Descartes' cogito ergo sum argument. [1] [2] Hintikka concluding that cogito ergo sum relies on performance rather than logical inference. [3]

Habermas claims that post-modernism's epistemological relativism suffers from a performative contradiction. Hans-Hermann Hoppe claims in his theory of discourse ethics that arguing against self-ownership results in a performative contradiction. [4]

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References

  1. 1 2 Haberman, Jürgen (1990). Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. p. 80. ISBN   978-0-7456-11044.
  2. Apel, Karl-Otto (1975). "The problem of philosophical fundamental-grounding in light of a transcendental pragmatic of language". Man and World. 8 (3): 239–275. doi:10.1007/BF01255646. S2CID   144951196.
  3. Hintikka, Jaakko (1962). "Cogito, Ergo Sum: Inference or Performance?". The Philosophical Review. 71 (1): 3–32. doi:10.2307/2183678. JSTOR   2183678.
  4. Hoppe, Hans-Hermann (September 1988). "The Ultimate Justification of Private Property" (PDF). Liberty. 1: 20.

Further reading