Oxford Pragmatism: Ryle and Austin’s Debt

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Cheryl Misak (University Professor and Professor of Philosophy, University Professor and Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto)

Oxford Pragmatism

Ryle and Austin’s Debt

Cheryl Misak (University Professor and Professor of Philosophy, University Professor and Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto)

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English

Oxford University Press
24 July 2025

Philosophy of language; Philosophy; Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge; Philosophy of mind; History of ideas

Oxford Pragmatism uncovers and explores the unrecognized impact of American pragmatism on the Oxford linguistic philosophy that thrived from the 1930s to the 1950s, made famous by Gilbert Ryle and J. L Austin. Cheryl Misak argues that Margaret Macdonald, a neglected British analytic philosopher and excellent scholar of American pragmatism, delivered core pragmatist ideas to her friend Ryle: the mind as a set of dispositions to behave; laws as 'inference tickets', and the distinction between knowing that something is true and knowing how to do something. Macdonald found these ideas in the work of the founder of pragmatism C. S. Peirce and his two most impressive followers, Clarence Irving Lewis in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Frank Ramsey in Cambridge, England. Ryle, it is argued, picked them up from Macdonald, though failed to acknowledge them as hers or as pragmatist. A lineage is also traced from American pragmatism to Austin's ideas that when we use words we perform actions, and that definitions must be fit for purpose. This route runs from Peirce and Lewis to Austin and through to contemporary conceptual engineers who follow in Austin's footsteps. Along the way, the views of Wittgenstein, Russell, Schiller, Ayer, and Cook Wilson are canvassed and assessed. In a Postscript, Misak outlines how pragmatism played out in the next generation of Oxford philosophers, such as Strawson and Wiggins.

By: Cheryl Misak (University Professor and Professor of Philosophy University Professor and Professor of Philosophy University of Toronto)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 163mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 647g
ISBN: 9780198875888
ISBN 10: 0198875886
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 24 July 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction PART 1. CLASSICAL PRAGMATISM: ITS FRIENDS AND FOES 1: C. S. Peirce: Meaning, Action, Habit 2: C. I. Lewis: The Web of Belief 3: The Pack Ice of Logical Theory 4: Russell's Pragmatism(!) 5: Ramsey's Pragmatism 6: Wittgenstein Turns His Back on the Tractatus 7: Wittgenstein on Grammar and Rule Following PART 2. PRAGMATISM AND EARLY OXFORD LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY 8: F. C. S. Schiller: 'Altogether beyond the Pale' 9: Cook Wilson and Prichard 10: The Early Ryle: The Rise of Oxford Analytic Philosophy 11: A. J. Ayer 12: Margaret Macdonald PART 3. RYLE: KNOWING HOW 13: Tracking Ryle's Shift to Pragmatism 14: Knowing How and Knowing That 15: Exorcising the Ghost in the Machine 16: Rule Following and Laws as Inference Tickets PART 4. AUSTIN: DOING THINGS WITH WORDS 17: Austin's Linguistic Method 18: Unearthing the Influences on Austin 19: To Say Something Is to Do Something 20: Austin and Pragmatism 21: Postscript: The Next Generation

Cheryl Misak is University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. She works on American pragmatism, the history of analytic philosophy, ethics and political philosophy, and the philosophy of medicine.

Reviews for Oxford Pragmatism: Ryle and Austin’s Debt

PART 1. CLASSICAL PRAGMATISM: ITS FRIENDS AND FOES PART 2. PRAGMATISM AND EARLY OXFORD LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY PART 3. RYLE: KNOWING HOW PART 4. AUSTIN: DOING THINGS WITH WORDS