 Bentham and Austin would have had a ready response: that people ordinarily misuse the word ‘obligation’. They fail to give it a meaning that can be expounded by reference to sensible objects. Bentham and Austin were linguistic philosophers, but (unlike J.L. Austin) not ordinary language philosophers. They sought a way of using language that would back up their empiricism and utilitarianism, and they were actually pleased if that technique called for a reorganisation of ordinary language: it showed that they were disclosing what had been obscured by mere cant.