Performative contradiction are performative contradictions in this context. Habermas claims that post-modernism's epistemological relativism suffers from a performative contradiction. Hans-Hermann Hoppe claims in his theory of argumentation ethics that arguing for any political position other than free-market anarchism results in a performative contradiction. Jaakko Hintikka more rigorously fleshed out the notion of performative contradiction in analyzing Descartes' famous "cogito ergo sum" argument, concluding that "cogito ergo sum" relies on performance rather than logical inference. Performative contradiction A performative contradiction () arises when the propositional content of a statement contradicts the presuppositions of asserting it. An example of a performative contradiction is the
Cogito, ergo sum familiar form of the phrase in his 1641 "Meditations on First Philosophy". The earliest written record of the phrase in Latin is in his 1644 "Principles of Philosophy", where, in a margin note (see below), he provides a clear explanation of his intent: "[W]e cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt". Fuller forms of the phrase are attributable to other authors. The phrase first appeared (in French) in Descartes's 1637 "Discourse on the Method" in the first paragraph of its fourth part: In 1641, Descartes published (in Latin) "Meditations on first philosophy" in which he referred to the proposition,