Tradition

Ordinary language philosophy

Overview

Ordinary language philosophy (OLP, sometimes called linguistic philosophy) is a methodological approach within analytic philosophy which treats many traditional philosophical problems as the result of misunderstandings of how words are ordinarily used. Rather than proposing ideal or artificial languages, ordinary language philosophers investigate the actual use of expressions in everyday contexts and often argue that once such uses are described carefully, many philosophical "problems" dissolve or change their shape.

In the twentieth century OLP was primarily associated with the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, early to mid-century philosophers at the University of Cambridge such as G. E. Moore and John Wisdom, and mid-century philosophers at the University of Oxford, including Gilbert Ryle, J. L. Austin, P. F. Strawson, H. L. A. Hart, and Paul Grice. Because a number of its most prominent practitioners taught at Oxford, OLP is sometimes informally referred to as "Oxford philosophy".

The approach peaked in influence during the 1940s–1960s and then rapidly declined as more formal and scientific styles of analytic philosophy gained prominence. Since the late twentieth century, however, ordinary-language-inspired work has played a significant role in post-analytic philosophy, especially in the writings of Stanley Cavell, John Searle, and a number of feminist philosophers and literary theorists who have adapted ordinary language methods for social, ethical, and aesthetic questions. Recent work in the history of analytic philosophy and in experimental philosophy has also re-examined and in some cases revived aspects of the ordinary language tradition.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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Ants appear to be able to communicate a certain amount of information by means of their antennae. Probably writing itself, which we now regard as merely a way of representing speech, was originally an independent language, as it has remained to this day in China. Writing seems to have consisted originally of pictures, which gradually became conventionalized, coming in time to represent syllables, and finally letters…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
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Philosophers have too often, in the past, permitted themselves to pronounce on empirical questions, and found themselves, as a result, in disastrous conflict with well-attested facts. We must, therefore, renounce the hope that philosophy can promise satisfaction to our mundane desires.
Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
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What are called the personal pronouns, it may be observed, are among the last words of which children learn to make use. A child, speaking of itself, says, _Billy walks_, _Billy sits_, **instead of _I walk_, _I sit_. As in the beginnings of language, therefore, mankind seem to have evaded the invention of at least the more abstract prepositions, and to have expressed the same relations which these now stand for, by…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
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Ordinary language philosophy

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