The Harris–Edmondson dispute

Identifying the strawmen

Bibliographic Data

ID10141245
AuthorsK Rajagopalan (0000-0003-3877-4936, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume20
Issue2
Pages251-256
Publication date1984-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2267 • E-ISSN: 1469-7742
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022226700013888
OpenAlexW2124106012
LanguageEN
References cited10

The claim made by Harris (1978) that the descriptivist position in respect of performatives is self-defeating has engendered some spirited controversy through the years since then (see Edmondson 1979, 1983, Wachtel, 1980; Spielmann, 1980; Taylor & Wolf, 1981). Let me declare right at the outset that I am with the non-descriptivists. Nevertheless, in what follows, I wish to show ( a ) that no brusque argument of the sort originally advanced by Harris or subsequently marshalled by the others can help settle the dispute either way, and ( b ) that the controversy so far has been riddled with a good deal of futile cross-talk which has blinded the participants in the intellectual free-for-all to some of the real issues at hand

Argument (complex analysis · Arithmetic · Epistemology · Performative utterance · Position (finance · Sociology · sort · Wish · Mathematics · Medicine · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

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