A performative contradiction (German: performativer Widerspruch) arises when the making of an utterance rests on necessary presuppositions that contradict the proposition asserted in the utterance.
The term was coined by Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel, who attribute the first elaboration of the concept to Jaakko Hintikka, in his analysis of Descartes' cogito ergo sum argument. Hintikka concluding that cogito ergo sum relies on performance rather than logical inference.
Habermas claims that post-modernism's epistemological relativism suffers from a performative contradiction. Hans-Hermann Hoppe claims in his theory of discourse ethics that arguing against self-ownership results in a performative contradiction.
See also
- Liar paradox
- Performative utterance
- Self-refuting idea
- Kettle logic – Using inconsistent arguments
References
- ^ Haberman, Jürgen (1990). Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-7456-11044.
- Apel, Karl-Otto (1975). "The problem of philosophical fundamental-grounding in light of a transcendental pragmatic of language". Man and World. 8 (3): 239–275. doi:10.1007/BF01255646. S2CID 144951196.
- Hintikka, Jaakko (1962). "Cogito, Ergo Sum: Inference or Performance?". The Philosophical Review. 71 (1): 3–32. doi:10.2307/2183678. JSTOR 2183678.
- Hoppe, Hans-Hermann (September 1988). "The Ultimate Justification of Private Property" (PDF). Liberty. 1: 20.
Further reading
- Habermas, Jürgen (1990). "Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification". In Habermas (ed.). Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. trans. C. Lenhardt and S.W. Nicholsen. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
- Hoppe, Hans-Hermann. "On the Ultimate Justification of the Ethics of Private Property". The Economics and Ethics of Private Property.
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