In quest of the new foundations of rationality: communicative dimension of Austin’s linguistic phenomenology

Abstract

The issues of defining the essence of rationality is one of the most challenging and relevant in modern philosophy. Due to the crisis of classical rationalism and the revision of the fundamental foundations of rationality, as a result the understanding of rationality as a multidimensional phenomenon is formed and the strategy of communicative rationality is being formed in the philosophy of the second half of the 20th century. To understand and evaluate the prospects of the development of this strategy, a theoretical historical and philosophical reconstruction of its foundations, which were formed in various directions, primarily analytical philosophy, is necessary. This article is devoted to analyses the linguistic phenomenology of J. Austin in order to determine the communicative dimension of the basic concepts of his theory of speech acts. As a result of the research, the thesis that J. Austin’s theory of speech acts is a new tool for the linguistic analysis of everyday language, which allows us to describe the mechanism of communicative interaction of subjects, the result of which is coordinated actions, is substantiated. It is shown that the basis of rational activity is the successful implementation of the subject’s communicative intentions in various types of speech acts (locative, illocutive, perlocutive). This article has concluded that J. Austin’s philosophical conception is one of the most significant achievements in the process of forming a strategy of communicative rationality.