We speak of people "taking refuge" in vagueness — the more … - John Langshaw Austin

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We speak of people "taking refuge" in vagueness — the more precise you are, in general the more likely you are to be wrong, whereas you stand a good chance of not being wrong if you make it vague enough.

John Langshaw Austin

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About John Langshaw Austin

John Langshaw Austin (28 March 1911 – 8 February 1960) was an English philosopher of language and speech theorist, remembered primarily as the developer of the theory of .

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Alternative Names: J. L. Austin

All quotes from John Langshaw Austin Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like John Langshaw Austin:

Ludwig Wittgenstein Niels Bohr John Searle Douglas Hofstadter Samuel Butler

Additional quotes by John Langshaw Austin

We become obsessed with "truth" when discussing statements, just as we become obsessed with "freedom" when discussing conduct...Like freedom, truth is a bare minimum or an illusory ideal.

If we say that I only get at the symptoms of his anger, that carries an important implication. But is this the way we do talk?

There are more ways of killing a cat than drowning it in butter; but this is the sort of thing (as the proverb indicates) we overlook: there are more ways of outraging speech than contradiction merely.

We speak of people "taking refuge" in vagueness — the more precise you are, in general the more likely you are to be wrong, whereas you stand a good … - John Langshaw Austin

About John Langshaw Austin

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Additional quotes by John Langshaw Austin