And a new year follows from the old (in accordance with Kant's second analogy of experience).

Good afternoon, philosophers, and a splendid new year to you.

To celebrate this new beginning and lengthening of the days, the good people at Humboldt University have published in their journal (Essays in Philosophy, M. Goodman, ed.) an article by Stephen Rainey.

"Stephen Rainey begins with Austin’s recantation of his early view that “the supposed opposition between performative and constative utterances” is marked by a clear distinction. Austin’s 1962 “recantation” is motivated in part by the recognition “that discussions of truth and falsity are not simply decided once and for all when a quality is ascribed to an utterance.” They are, Rainey and Austin agree, not “simply” decided at all. They depend not only on “facts” and their bearing on the utterance but also on an array of contextual factors associated with speaker and/or audience. Recognizing the complexity is a first step toward a more fully articulated theory of communicative action along lines developed by Habermas and Brandom. In these theorists, Rainey suggests, we move from consideration of “cognition and intersubjective understanding” to “self-understanding in a quite comprehensive way”--toward “what makes us each and together who we are.” That move is critically important for the connection between philosophy of language and ethics that is of interest in one way or another to all the authors gathered in this collection. Understanding how we live in language has implications not only for communication but also for the kinds of persons we become and for the shapes of the cities we make for ourselves and others."

It's here for your perusal: http://www.humboldt.edu/~essays/