#  Library discovers lectures by J. L. Austin 

 





March 03, 2017

 

 

Two recordings of a lecture and Q&A session given by the philosopher J. L. Austin to a Swedish audience in October of 1959 were recently discovered to be among the uncatalogued holdings of the Robbins Library of Philosophy. The recordings had apparently once been stored in a filing cabinet drawer but had somehow dropped out through a gap at the back. It was only upon removing the drawer that the recordings—along with a collection paper clips, envelopes, and other debris—were discovered. It is unclear who initially recorded the lectures, which concerns Austin's concept of the performative utterance.  
  
A distinguished member of the philosophy faculty at the University of Oxford, Austin visited Harvard in 1955 to give the William James Lectures, lectures that would become Austin's most well-known published work *How to Do Things With Words*. Austin's approach to philosophy exerted a powerful influence on a generation of younger philosphers, including Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value (Emeritus) Stanley Cavell, who was a Ph.D. student in the department at the time of Austin's visit.  
  
The [digitized recordings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXo0YNZ3WsE) are available to the public through the [department's Youtube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnRjVDRdQOTtmQA99kCzOwA).



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Department News ](/news-topics/department-news)
 
 

 Share on:- [     Facebook ](#)
- [     Twitter ](#)
- [     Linkedin ](#)