Saying and showing as performatives

Abstract

This article refl ects on the Wittgensteinian distinction between saying and showing under the atmosphere of Austin’s theory of performativity. Much of the secondary literature on Wittgenstein favors the thesis that the opposition between what can be said and what can only be shown disappears from texts written after the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Lecture on Ethics. This paper investigates the pertinence of Austin’s philosophy to strengthen the less pervasive hypothesis that this distinction survives in Wittgenstein’s mature philosophy, albeit modifi ed. It claims, moreover, that the relevance of the point in focus is not merely exegetical.