ABSTRACT
By controlling various types of actions, agents in effect ‘control’ the tru th values of propositions. This is especially true of conventionally regulated social interaction: it is within social interaction and often through varied symbolic acts that control of truth values offers the most diverse forms. The tru th value of ‘Peter will do X ’ evidently depends on his position within social hierarchies and on the power which others may have over him: his captain in the army, his judge at a trial, his subjects if he is king, those who seek to persuade him, etc. P eter’s boss may have control, sometimes total control, over the proposition ‘Peter is fired,’ in so far as its tru th value is determined by his actions. And for the same reason Peter controls the truth value of propositions like ‘Peter resigns,’ ‘Peter asks to be hired.’But how is control over tru th values actually applied? We noted it could be effected very simply by performing the corresponding acts: (raising one’s hand) in order for ‘I raise my hand’ to be true; or (firing Peter) in order for ‘Peter is fired’ to be true; or again (ordering Peter to go to T im buktu) in order for ‘Peter will go to T im buktu’ to be true.But it happens that in many cases the act which can make ‘P’ true consists precisely in saying ‘P’: You will go to Tim buktu [order].You are fired [firing].I resign [resignation].T he assembly is (hereby) in session [opening]. In this perspective, the process appears to be circular: one controls tru th values of propositions because one controls the acts which determ ine them, but the acts themselves reduce to the expression of the propositions in question. How can language, an objective vehicle of tru th values, become the subjective basis for their determination?This question is of course fundamentally the same as in section 2, but it is couched in different terms, tru th values being not merely statab le but also controllable. M uch of social life, therefore, depends on our use and evaluation of speech acts as normative expressions of a system of social stratification as realized in textual statements (announcem ents, documents, etc.) and daily social interaction.
