The Philosophy Of Language Or Language As An Exact Science

Excerpt from The Philosophy of Language, or Language as an Exact Science: Subjectively and Analytically Arranged Things, material and immaterial. Anything from which we gain or learn ideas, notions or perceptions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This volume brings together a diverse range of scholars to address important philosophical and interdisciplinary questions in the study of language. Linguistics throughout history has been a conduit to the study of the mind, brain, societal structure, literature and history itself. The epistemic and methodological transfer between the sciences and humanities in regards to linguistics has often been documented, but the underlying philosophical issues have not always been adequately addressed. With 15 original and interdisciplinary chapters, this volume therefore tackles vital questions relating to the philosophy, history, and theoretical interplay between the study of language and fields as varied as logic, physics, biology, classical philology and neuroscience. With a four part structure, questions of the mathematical foundations of linguistics, links to the natural sciences, cognitive implications and historical connections, take centre stage throughout the volume. The final chapters present research related to the linguistic connections between history, philosophy and the humanities more broadly. Advancing new avenues of research, this volume is exemplary in its treatment of diachronic and cross-disciplinary interaction, and will be of interest to all scholars interested in the study of language.

The more we analyze language, the more clearly we see that it transcends in depth the most conscious productions of the mind. -Schelling. I believe truly that languages are the best mirror of the mind, and that an exact analysis of the signification of words would make us better acquainted than anything else with the operations of the understanding. -Leibnitz. He who would examine the influence which words, mere words, have exercised on the minds of men, might write a history of the world that would teach us more than any which we yet possess. -Max Müller. As the fossils of the rocks disclose to the paleontologist the various forms of life that have successively appeared upon the globe, so, too, the fossils of speech disclose to the scientific philologist the various stages that have been reached in the growth of human consciousness. -A. H. Sayce. Language is the reflection of the thoughts and beliefs of communities from their earliest days; and by tracing its changes and its fortunes, by discovering the origin and history of words and their meanings, we can read those thoughts and beliefs with greater certainty and minuteness than had they been traced by the pen of the historian. -A. H. Sayce. Etymology tends directly to aid us in the clear understanding and just and forcible employment of the words which compose our own language. -George P. Marsh. Etymology has the charm of all sciences which deal with the beginning and growth of the great products of nature or mind. -George Curtius. * * * * * From the PREFACE. It is the aim of this work to explain as plainly as possible some of the most important results of the Science of Language. It is astonishing how little is generally known, even by educated people, about language,-what it is, whence our words come, what is their true bearing, how is our language*'connected with those spoken by peoples around us, etc. We seem to speak too much as birds sing-without ever bending our minds to reflect on the nature of the sounds we utter. The main results of geology, physiology, chemistry and other sciences are already a possession of the public at large. Why should we not pay some attention also to this wonderful instrument, without which civilization, society itself, could not be possible? An inquiry into the nature of our language cannot be less interesting, hardly less important, than the study of the constitution of the earth, or of our body. A work on this subject which aims to be popular, is necessarily imperfect and incomplete. Many things are to be left out; technical terms must be avoided as much as possible; rigorous scientific order cannot generally be followed; too often concision must be given up and repetitions resorted to for the sake of plainness and clearness. It is also, of course, impossible not to use now and then instances, comparisons and explanations already given by others, especially in such standard works as those of Prof. Whitney and Max Müller. All suggestions which may help to make this work more useful and less incomplete, will meet with thankful acknowledgment.

This book has arisen out of lectures I gave in recent years at the Uni versities of Munich and Regensburg, and it is intended to serve as a textbook for courses in the Philosophy of Language. In my lectures I was able to presuppose that the students had taken an introductory course in logic. Some knowledge of logic will also be helpful in studying this book - as it is almost everywhere else in philosophy -, especially in Section 3. 2, but it is no prerequisite. I would like to give my sincere thanks to Prof. Terrell for his excellent translation of the book, which is based on the second, revised and en larged German edition. Regensburg, May 1975 FRANZ VON KUTSCHERA INTRODUCTION Language has become one of philosophy's most important and pressing themes during this century. This preoccupation with language has its ori gins in the most diverse areas of philosophical inquiry.

This book features the full scope of Susan Petrilli's important work on signs, language, communication, and of meaning, interpretation, and understanding. Although readers are likely familiar with otherness, interpretation, identity, embodiment, ecological crisis, and ethical responsibility for the biosphere-Petrilli forges new paths where other theorists have not tread. This work of remarkable depth takes up intensely debated topics, exhibiting in their treatment of them what Petrilli admires-creativity and imagination. Petrilli presents a careful integration of divergent thinkers and diverse perspectives. While she abandons hope of attaining a final synthesis or an unqualifiedly comprehensive outlook, there remains a drive for coherence and detailed integration. The theory of identity being advocated in this book will provide the reader with an aid to appreciating the identity of the theorizing undertaken by Petrilli in her confrontation with an array of topics. Her theory differentiates itself from other offerings and, at the same time, is envisioned as a process of self-differentiation. Petrilli's contribution is at once historical and theoretical. It is historical in its recovery of major figures of language; it is theoretical in its articulation of a comprehensive framework. She expertly combines analytic precision and moral passion, theoretical imagination and political commitment.