Chapter Precursors of Performativity. Language as Action in the Works by Étienne Bonnot de Condillac and Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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https://www.press.uni.lodz.pl/index.php/wul/catalog/book/254Author(s)
Gniadek, Michał
Language
PolishAbstract
The present paper analyses the concept of the performativity of human language in the philosophical writings by Étienne Bonnot de Condillac and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The first part of the text is devoted to the idea of langage d’action and its significance for Condillac‘s epistemology and theory of language; whereas the social and political functions of human speech, presented in the works of Jean- Jacques Rousseau, are interpreted in the second part of the paper. Ultimately, it seems that for both Condillac and Rousseau human language is not just a mere thinking tool, but also a way of changing and improving our reality.

