[lit-ideas] Re: Is a computer program a performative?
- From: John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 10:35:11 +0900
On 2004/08/07, at 22:59, Peter D. Junger wrote:
> Now in my experience drafting a contract---which ceases to be a draft
> and becomes an instrument---i.e., creates new legal
> relationships---when
> it is propery executed, which I take to be a paradigmatic case of
> a performative, is almost identical to the act of writing a computer
> program, which becomes effective only when it is executed---i.e., run
> --- on a computer.
Ah, but there's the rub. The machinery that executes the program's
instructions is just that, machinery. The institutions that make the
contract effective are social, not physical, facts. One operates
regardless of social context; the other doesn't.
Cheers,
John
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