Performative contradiction
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A performative contradiction (German: performativer Widerspruch) arises when a speech-act rests on non-contingent presuppositions that contradict the proposition asserted in that speech-act.[1]
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.[1][2] Hintikka concluding that cogito ergo sum relies on performance rather than logical inference.[3]
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.[4]