Abstract
Bourdieu holds that language is part of the way of life of a social group and serves essentially practical ends. In this he stands opposed to ‘the intellectualist philosophy which makes language an object of understanding rather than an instrument of action’ (1977b:645). The origin of Bourdieu’s view lies in the European philosophical tradition which, since Kant, has been concerned more with human activity than with human theorising. In this chapter, then, Bourdieu’s position will be discussed within this European tradition and contrasted with the ‘intellectualist’ tradition so familiar to philosophers in the Anglo-Saxon world, the broad outlines of which will first be sketched in.
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