Conclusions of Practical Argument: A Speech Act Analysis

Year, pages: 2021, 420 - 457

Abstract: Conclusions of theoretical reasoning are assertions—or at least speech acts belonging to the class of assertives, such as hypotheses, pre- dictions or estimates. What, however, are the conclusions of practical reasoning? Employing the concepts of speech act theory, in this paper I investigate which speech acts we perform when we’re done with an in- stance of a practical argument and present its result in a linguistic form. To this end, I first offer a detailed scheme of practical argument suitable for an external pragmatic account (rather than an internal cognitive ac- count). Resorting to actual examples, I then identify a class of action-inducing speech acts as characteristic conclusions of practical argument. I argue that these speech acts—promises, orders, pieces of advice, proposals, and others—differ chiefly depending on the agent of the action induced (me, us, you, them) and their illocutionary strength.

Lewiński, M. 2021. Conclusions of Practical Argument: A Speech Act Analysis. In Organon F, vol. 28, no.2, pp. 420-457. 1335-0668. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2021.28207

Lewiński, M. (2021). Conclusions of Practical Argument: A Speech Act Analysis. Organon F, 28(2), 420-457. 1335-0668. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2021.28207

Publisher: Filozofický ústav SAV, Filosofický ústav AVČR

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