Performative contradiction

[Rauno Huttunen]

On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, Chris Latiolais wrote:

> Apel gets the notion of "performative contradiction" from Georg
> VonWright, who coined the term in connection with his conceptual
> explication of Descartes' Cogito ergo Sum argument: no logico-semantic
> contradiction is encountered in denying the Cogito argument, only an
> undermining at the level of the performance of thought.
> 
> Bryce Weber wrote:
> 
> >  As I recall, Habermas borrows the term "performative contradiction"
> > from Apel. To my mind this transforms what ought to be a fundamentally
> > dialectical notion into too much of an analytic, neo-Kantian one, but
> > it still works effectively at the level at which he employs it. Bryce
> > WeberCEP Visiting FellowVolga Region Academy of Civil ServiceSaratov,
> > Russia
> 

And story goes on. I remember that  Georg Henrik von Wright (former
student of Wittgenstein) borrowed the idea from another Finnish
philosopher Jaakko Hintikka. Maybe Kauppi can confirm this?


Rauno Huttunen
(also a Finnish philosopher or at least Finnish)