This article analyses the ontological presuppositions of the concept of performativity in two current philosophical theories about the social construction of human realities. By means of a discussion with Judith Butler and John Searle, two ‘philosophers of performativity’, I will defend that our creative capacity to create social institutions, gender and subjectivity, presupposes an understanding of humans as performative beings. Following a critical realist perspective and the theory of emergence, I will argue that performativity refers to a constitutive structure of human beings. After outlining the characteristics of a performative being, as well as the structure of performative agency, I further suggest that human performativity invites us to open up an inquiry about the aesthetic nature of human beings.
