Speech Act as a Factor of Socio-Political Change: Stating the Problem

The purpose of this study is to pose the problem of analyzing the relationship between conceptual (linguistic) and social changes, as well as to reveal the role of socio-political speech action of political theorists as key actors in these processes. The article considers the issues of the construction and changes of social and political reality, as well as the role of speech acts in these processes as a special type of social action. According to J. Searle’s general theory of social reality, speech acts are seen as the basis and a necessary condition for socio-political changes. The structure and elements of speech acts are described within the framework of J. Austin’s theory of speech acts, supplemented and formalized by Searle. The article discusses the influence of this theory on the formation of the theoretical and methodological approach of the Cambridge School of Intellectual History, used to understand the analysis of socio-political changes in various societies and historical periods. As an example of such research, the article describes the main elements of the approach of one of the Cambridge School’s founders Quentin Skinner. The analytical tools used by Skinner and his colleagues help to understand the connection between conceptual and social changes in the history of political thought. Considering political theorists as ideologists, Skinner explains through the analysis of political languages and ideological context how authors-ideologists, using statements that are the basis of their theoretical concepts and rhetoric, intentionally take certain actions that change the social reality. The possibilities, attempts and prospects of applying the Cambridge School’s methodology to the Russian history are also considered.