Conclusions

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides a sketchy overview of Austin’s thought about the five themes of illocution, action, knowledge, truth, and philosophy. Then, in the attempt to identify some unifying features of Austin’s work, it highlights some ideas or stances that are recurrent in it, such as the opposition to dichotomies (including the two ‘fetishes’ consisting of the truth/falsity and value/fact dichotomy) to which he systematically prefers multiple distinctions and graded differences, the attention for intersubjectivity that can be observed in his philosophy of action, speech act theory, epistemology, and ‘linguistic phenomenology’, and the commitment to a ‘sober’ philosophy. It also highlights the role played in Austin’s thought by situatedness, not conceived as determined by what one is aware of, but by where one is placed and what one is up to.