Performative contradiction#Usage in philosophy

{{Short description|Concept in logic}}

A performative contradiction ({{langx|de|performativer Widerspruch}}) arises when the making of an utterance rests on necessary presuppositions that contradict the proposition asserted in the utterance.{{cite book |last=Haberman|first=Jürgen|date=1990 |title=Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action |location=Cambridge|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|page=80|isbn=978-0-7456-11044}}

The term was coined by Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel, who attribute the first elaboration of the concept to Jaakko Hintikka, in his analysis of Descartes' cogito ergo sum argument.{{cite journal |title=The problem of philosophical fundamental-grounding in light of a transcendental pragmatic of language|first=Karl-Otto|last=Apel|journal=Man and World |volume=8 |issue=3 |year=1975 |pages=239–275 |doi=10.1007/BF01255646|s2cid=144951196 }} Hintikka concluding that cogito ergo sum relies on performance rather than logical inference.{{cite journal |title=Cogito, Ergo Sum: Inference or Performance? |first=Jaakko |last=Hintikka |journal=The Philosophical Review |volume=71 |issue=1 |year=1962 |pages=3–32 |doi=10.2307/2183678 |jstor=2183678 }}

Habermas claims that post-modernism's epistemological relativism suffers from a performative contradiction. Hans-Hermann Hoppe claims in his theory of discourse ethics that arguing against self-ownership results in a performative contradiction.{{cite journal |last=Hoppe |first=Hans-Hermann |title=The Ultimate Justification of Private Property |journal=Liberty |date=September 1988 |volume=1|page=20 |url=http://www.hanshoppe.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/hoppe_ult_just_liberty.pdf}}