Humanistyka niefortunna

The article posits that speech act theory can “disarm” the harmful utterances in public debate that draw arguments from discourses of the natural and exact sciences. The proposal of “unfortunate humanities” aligns with the broader current of thought associated with public humanities. Discussing a specific case of crisis in public and academic debate, the author hypothesizes a new role for the humanities as an intervention in the field of public discourse. The tool of this intervention is creation and critique: the double-edged sword of the humanities that most effectively performs and simulates reality while demystifying the merely-linguistic status of its creations. The humanities can do this in reference to any scholarly statement so as to prevent its transformation into a harmful performative.