The Philosophy Behind the Movie O Pagador de Promessas

The Illocutionary Logic and the Cohen Problem

Authors

Keywords:

illocutionary act, falacy, promise

Abstract

The Illocutionary Logic developed by John Searle and Daniel Vanderveken aims to study the logical properties of the so-called “illocutionary act” and its “illocutionary force”. In other words, this theory formally states the conditions of realization and satisfaction of the illocutionary acts in the context of the ordinary conversation. William Lycan formulated a problem called The Cohen Problem, inspired by a criticism made by Jonathan Cohen to the old Theory of Speech Acts created by John L. Austin, which demonstrates that if a declarative speech act is capable of altering our linguistic and, therefore, institutional reality, by the simple act of enunciation, then we should be able to shape the world at will, even if this is not the case, apparently. We will analyze how the theory of speech acts explains the social consequences suffered by the character Zé do Burro in the film O pagador de promessas.

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References

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Published

Apr-Wed-2026