John Austin

John Langshaw Austin (English: John Langshaw Austin, often signed as J. L. Austin, March 26, 1911 - February 8, 1960) was a British philosopher who belonged to the analytic philosophy tradition and specialized in the philosophy of language. He began studying at Balliol College, Oxford University in 1929, and stayed at Oxford University to teach after graduating in 1935. During World War II, he served in military intelligence as a lieutenant colonel. In 1952 he was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford. Austin visited Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, in the mid-1950s, and taught the William James Lecture at Harvard University in 1955. It was at this time that he met Chomsky and became friends. He served as President of the Aristotelian Society from 1956 to 1957. Austin did not publish any works during his lifetime. His lectures and class notes were collected and published after his death, including "Philosophical Essays", "How to Do Things with Language" (1961), and "Sense and Subsensory Objects" (1962).