TALKING TO OURSELVES: SKEPTICISM, INTENTIONS, AND COMMITMENTS IN SELF-TALK

Abstract

In her "What Is the Purpose of Self-Talk," Felicity Deamer challenges the conventional belief that individuals possess a clear understanding of their communicative intentions before speaking, suggesting that such intentions are often only partially accessible. Drawing upon Grice's communication model, Deamer argues that this partial self-blindness creates an information gap between pre- and post-speech moments, thus allowing self-talk to have a communicative purpose. However, objections emerge regarding the criteria for knowing intentions and the significance of non-verbal cues. The skeptical implications of Deamer's argument are addressed at length, prompting the following tradeoff: (1) Either non-verbal cues enable us to know our communicative intentions, sacrificing the possibility of Gricean communication, or (2) maintain partial self-blindness, preserving Gricean communication, but at the cost of skepticism. This dilemma opens broader inquiries about communicative intentions and the nature of self-talk in general. Finally, the paper takes up Geurts' speech-act account of assertions in self-talk, capturing their overlooked usefulness as commitment-binding and context-providing tools.