If the analysis is used to help deal with distinctions that contribute to a better understanding of, or solution to, philosophical problems, it is labeled "linguistic philosophy." If the analysis focuses on understanding how language works in itself, apart from any application to philosophical problems, it is called "philosophy of language." Austin engaged in both kinds of analysis.
One of the five children of Geoffrey Langshaw Austin and Mary Bowes-Wilson Austin, John Langshaw Austin was born in Lancaster on 26 March 1911. His father served in the army during World War I and, after the war, became secretary of St. Leonard's School in St. Andrews, Scotland.
Austin was educated at Shrewsbury School. In 1929 he received a scholarship in classics to Balliol College of the University of Oxford. At Oxford he gradually became interested in philosophy. He won the Gaisford Prize in 1931; that same year he received a first class in honor moderations. In 1933 he received a first in litterae humaniores and a fellowship at All Souls College, where he lectured on Plato, Aristotle, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and Immanuel Kant.
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