Performative contradiction
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A performative contradiction arises when the propositional content of a statement contradicts the presuppositions of asserting it. An example of a performative contradiction is the statement "I am dead" because the very act of proposing it presupposes the actor is alive. Performative contradictions cannot be rationally advanced in argument.
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Various Examples
The statement "Don't do as I do, do as I say" is arguably a performative contradiction because its assertion presupposes it being said by an asserter, rendering the two directives contradictory. The statement "Hierarchies do not exist" offers a more subtle example of performative contradiction referring to the very capacity of making a statement, because the statement itself is a hierarchy of semiotic relations of letters (as symbols) formed into words (as signifiers) formed into a sentence (as a statement).
Usage in philosophy
Solipsism is often held to be a performative contradiction if stated. Jürgen Habermas, Hans-Hermann Hoppe and related philosophers point out that statements spoken during justificatory argumentation carry additional presuppositions and so certain statements are performative contradictions in this context. Habermas claims that post-modernism's epistemological relativism suffers from a performative contradiction.
See also
- Argumentation ethics
- Contradiction
- Discourse ethics
- Liar paradox
- Paradox
- Presupposition
- Self-refuting idea
Further reading
- Habermas, Jürgen, “Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification” in Habermas, Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, trans. C. Lenhardt and S.W. Nicholsen (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990)
- Herman Hoppe, Hans, "On the Ultimate Justification of the Ethics of Private Property"Template:Ling-stub
