selfpositing

Self-positing is the act of positing or asserting a proposition that inherently involves the speaker’s identity, position, or utterance. It describes statements whose content includes a reference to the speaker or to the act of speaking. The term is a compound formed from “self” and “posit,” and it is used in analytic philosophy and linguistics to describe self-referential or self-anchored claims.

In philosophy of language, self-positing is related to the use of indexicals and reflexive content. The truth conditions of a self-positing statement may depend on who is speaking, when, or where. Examples include sentences like “I am here” or “This is my opinion,” where the audience must know the speaker’s context to evaluate the claim.

In rhetoric and social psychology, self-positing can function as a device for establishing authority, credibility, or ownership of a statement, and it can reinforce in-group identity or personal stance. It can also raise questions about objectivity, perspective, and the degree to which the claim is tied to the speaker’s self-referential position.

See also: self-reference, indexical expression, presupposition, reflexivity.