STOLEN FROM Ochieng Orwenjo A FREE LESSON ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE (For women celebrating the marriage bill). If the marriage bill is passed in its current form, then the philosophical and linguistic definition of “a promise” will come handy in many a courtroom. According to Speech Act Theory (Austin 1962; Searle, 1975), apromise must, in addition to fulfilling the general requirements of performative utterances, meet certain felicity conditions as exemplified below: S promises H to do x: 1. S believes H wants x done 2. S is able to do x. 3. S is willing to do x. 4. x has not already been done. 5. H will benefit from x. For those not intellectually gifted enough to understand the above calculus, here is a simplified explanation: A promise from a legally married man is void ab intio because he is already married; a promise obtained through coercion (probably in the heat of the thing!) is similarly void because it violates condition 3; if you are already married but wants an assurance from the man of the moment so that you dump your husband, the promise is similarly void as it violates condition 4 Have a felicitous day!
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 06:58:10 +0000
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