An illocutionary logical explanation of the liar paradox

History and Philosophy of Logic 28 (1):31-66 (2007)
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Abstract

This paper uses the resources of illocutionary logic to provide a new understanding of the Liar Paradox. In the system of illocutionary logic of the paper, denials are irreducible counterparts of assertions; denial does not in every case amount to the same as the assertion of the negation of the statement that is denied. Both a Liar statement, (a) Statement (a) is not true, and the statement which it negates can correctly be denied; neither can correctly be asserted. A Liar statement, more precisely, an attempted Liar statement, fails to fulfill conditions essential to statements, but no linguistic rules are violated by the attempt. Ordinary language, our ordinary practice of using language, is not inconsistent or incoherent because of the Liar. We are committed to deny Liars, but not to accept or assert them. This understanding of the Liar Paradox and its sources cannot be fully accommodated in a conventional logical system, which fails to mark the distinction between sentences/statements and illocutionary acts of accepting, rejecting, and supposing statements

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John T. Kearns
State University of New York, Buffalo

Citations of this work

The Liar Paradox and “Meaningless” Revenge.Jared Warren - 2023 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 53 (1):49-78.
The Liar Paradox in the predictive mind.Christian Michel - 2019 - Pragmatics and Cognition 26 (2-3):239-266.
The Liar Paradox in the predictive mind.Christian Michel - 2019 - Pragmatics Cognition 26 (2-3):239-266.
Kearns' Illocutionary Logic and the Liar.Manuel Bremer - 2008 - History and Philosophy of Logic 29 (3):223-225.

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References found in this work

Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language.John Rogers Searle - 1969 - Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language.William P. Alston - 1970 - Philosophical Quarterly 20 (79):172-179.
Speech Acts.J. Searle - 1969 - Foundations of Language 11 (3):433-446.
Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language.John Searle - 1969 - Philosophy and Rhetoric 4 (1):59-61.

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