But what is ‘Performativity of Science’? Austin, Perlocutionary Sequels, and Referent Malleability

Ever since its introduction by John L. Austin, ‘performativity’ has meant many things to many scholars—something that did not change when phrases like ‘performativity of science’ became popular. Such equivocations might have been unproblematic, were it not for their tendency to obscure important debates in philosophy of science. In this paper, I revisit Austin’s original use of the term ‘performativity’ and propose a nomenclature of three kinds of performativity in science. This project revises earlier attempts to classify and identify ‘genuine’ or ‘authentic’ performativity in science and instead advances an integrative disambiguation—one that preserves what scholars in STS and philosophy of science have found helpful about the concept while addressing demonstrable areas of conceptual conflation.