Accusation Theory (original) (raw)

Accusations play a pivotal role in human communication, including in contemporary political affairs. However, there is a lack of a philosophical conceptualisation that is necessary for appropriate descriptions of accusations and further philosophical scrutiny. Accusation Theory is proposed as such a theoretical framework. This paper (1) aims to present some general tools for the description of accusations as speech acts, (2) tries to understand fundamental features of accusations, (3) analyses some elements of the practice of accusing, (4) presents a short overview of relevant literature and (5) outlines some possible avenues of further research.