Speech acts are statements that perform an action, first described by the philosopher of the language J. L. Austin in the middle of the last century. On the example of the case of invalid and invalidated baptisms of priest Arango from 2022, the lecture will show how the change of one word in a speech act can have mitigating consequences and how philosophy can explain the relationship between convention and intention in communication and contribute to the understanding of important problems and situations.
Ema Luna Lalić is an assistant at the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka, where she graduated with a thesis on speech acts in the philosophy of language. She is working on a doctoral dissertation on the humanistic value of philosophy, and she also deals with the philosophy of art on the project on which she is employed.
Come to an interesting lecture and find out what happens if a Catholic priest accidentally screws up something in pronouncing the Sacrament, so instead of “I baptize you...” he says “We baptize you...”. Was the person eventually baptized? Is the intention sufficient for the speech act to fulfill its purpose? The church says it's not. What the philosophers of language say about it, find out at an interesting lecture in the Cultural Front.
This lecture takes place as part of the project Opatija Coffeehouse Debates – Young scientists.
