Saying “I think…” is not just describing an inner state
Even if we take as half-way houses, say, ‘I hold that…’ as said by a non-juryman, or ‘I expect that…’, it seems absurd to suppose that all they describe or state is something about the speaker’s beliefs or expectations. To suppose this is rather the sort of Alice-in-Wonderland over-sharpness of taking ‘I think that p’ as a statement about yourself which could be answered: ‘That is just a fact about you.’ (‘I don’t think…’ began Alice: ‘then you should not talk’ said the Caterpillar, or whoever it was).
- J.L. Austin, How to Do Things With Words, p89-90
