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According to Bochenski, there are not only the two kinds of independent ideal constructs that he calls "propositions" (die 5iitzeSätze) and "instructions" (die Weisungen), but also a third kind that -– following John Austin -– he calls "performatives" (die Performative) (79). Whereas a proposition expresses what there is, and an instruction expresses what one should do, a performative effects what it means.

My question is whether there is, or is not, a correspondence between these three kinds of independent ideal constructs, on the one hand, and my distinction between belief and action (as the two aspects of life-praxis) and self-understanding, on the other -– belief corresponding to propositions, action to instructions, self-understanding to performatives.

14 July 1996