Linguistic Origins of Political Revolutions

Date

2026-3-23

Author

Aydemir, Yunus

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By focusing on speech-act theory, this study aims to find theoretical principles that lay behind political revolutions which take place in social and civil contexts. The term revolution has its origin in the fields of astrology and astronomy. However, this term has been taken politically only from the 17th century onwards. Historically speaking, “political revolution” as a term, finds its first solid and substantial usage in the context of the French Revolution. On the other hand, speech-act theory that is first elaborated by British philosopher John Langshaw Austin who realizes that language does more than just describing the world, has had its prime with American philosopher John R. Searle. Searle takes the speech-acts theory as a step, or a means to show us how human beings construct societies. However, Searle is not only known for his contributions to speech-acts theory, but he is also known for his contributions to what has come to be known as ‘Social Ontology’ along with some other prominent figures such as Margaret Gilbert and Raimo Tuomela. In this respect, studying political revolutions, especially the French Revolution, in terms of speech-acts and social ontology proves worthwhile. For this purpose, the above-mentioned analysis will focus on the Declaration of Human Rights and of the Citizen (1789), which is declared after the French Revolution and which is believed to reflect the mental content of the revolutionaries who carry out the revolution.

Subject Keywords

Revolutions, Political Revolutions, Speech-acts, Social Ontology, French Revolution

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/119003

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis