Performative contradiction

A performative contradiction (German: performativer Widerspruch) 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.

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"