of action derives from developments in ordinary language philosophy made by Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin. Wittgenstein’s insight was (in Skinner’s words) "that we should stop asking about the ‘meanings’ of words and focus instead on the various functions they are capable of performing in different language games". Skinner takes Austin to have extended Wittgenstein’s argument in isolating the concept of a speech act, described by Skinner as the notion that "whenever we use language for purposes of communication, we are always doing something as well as saying something". According to Skinner, this means that any analysis that restricts itself to merely studying what a past thinker said on a given issue is incomplete. Historians must also recover what a thinker hoped to achieve in saying it. Skinner consequently proposes a form of linguistic contextualization that involves situating a text in relation to other texts and discourses. In this perspective, the text is a response to other thinkers, texts or cultural discourses. Skinner believes that ideas, arguments and texts should be placed in their original context. One consequence of this view is an emphasis on the necessity of studying less well-known political writers as a means of shedding light on the contemporary debates these classic texts contributed to. In this way, it becomes possible to decipher the original purpose of a text. To Skinner, then, texts are seen as weapons or tools that can, for example, be used to support, discredit, or legitimize specific social and political arrangements. In its earlier versions this added up to a critique of the approach of an older generation, and particularly of Leo Strauss and his followers. Empirical focus Skinner's historical work has mainly focused on political thinking in early-modern Europe. He has written a book on Niccolò Machiavelli, three books on Thomas Hobbes, and his Foundations of Modern Political Thought covers the whole period. He has specifically been concerned with the emergence of modern theories about the nature of the state, and with debates about the nature of political liberty. Miscellany When Skinner was interviewed by Alan Macfarlane, as part of his series of online conversations with academics, Skinner admitted that he had been a member of the Cambridge Apostles, a secret debating society in Cambridge University. He also revealed that Amartya Sen was a member at the same time. Sen mentioned their membership of the Apostles in his memoir Home in