Abstract

This text aims to clarify what and what kind of commitments are acquired by a speaker in assertion; assertive commitments are characterized as practical attitudes directly related to reasons. The text has three moments: in the first one, the development of the idea of assertion as a speech act is presented and it becomes evident that from its first conceptions, the speaker’s commitment plays an important role; in the second one, by means of a comparison with promise, it is clarified what kind of commitments a speaker acquires when making an assertion–the notions of primary and secondary commitments are introduced and applied specifically to the case of assertive commitments–; finally, in the third one, it is shown how assertive commitments can be understood as practical attitudes.