Ordinary Language and the Nature of Emotions and Motives

Abstract

My aim in this paper is to show how Austin’s theory of the philosophical importance of ordinary language has been applied and can be further applied to the philosophical study of emotion and motive. Austin was always reluctant to state his philosophical programme explicitly, but in ‘A Plea for Excuses’, he does both define the philosophical study of ordinary language and explain its use. He defines the study as ‘examining what we should say when’ (Austin 1979: 181), that is examining under what conditions, as we ordinarily talk, certain statements will be true. Austin does not in this passage give examples, but the implication for the present paper is that, if we are interested in the nature of emotion, we should begin by studying when, as we normally talk, it would be true to say that someone is, for example, angry or afraid or in love.