Crises of Acknowledgment: Oblique Actions and Ominous Verbs

Acknowledging other human beings, especially when they speak a language foreign to us, comport themselves in ways we find illegible, makes manifest just how difficult the work of acknowledgment is. But the pitfalls in devoting oneself to such work are of a piece with those woven into the fabric of acknowledging others with whom we share a culture. The author of this essay explores the work of acknowledgment, in light of both its Wittgenstein inspiration and some surprising implications of a close attention to several important claims made by J. L. Austin in ‘A Plea for Excuses’.’ The ‘natural economy of language’ might work against acknowledging our complicity in nothing less than the annihilation of others, especially those who speak, act, look, and in respects appear to be so different from ourselves. While our relationship to others tends to be, as Emerson noted, ‘oblique and casual’, killing in even a figurative sense is, as Austin suggested, ‘a verb of omen’. Arguably, oblique actions have more to do with ominous verbs than we appreciate—or tend to acknowledge. Such, at least, is what the author tries to render plausible.