Philosophy Of Language Research Articles

The State of the Field Report XII: Contemporary Chinese Studies of the Philosophy of Language in the Gongsun Longzi

The State of the Field Report XII: Contemporary Chinese Studies of the Philosophy of Language in the Gongsun Longzi

The Impact of the Current Crisis on Community’s Subjective State. Directions for Rebuilding Individual Wellbeing in the Post-Crisis Period

The choice of a lifestyle was and will remain an important part of the way in which we organise our life, certainly in the given socio-economic and cultural conditions. Lifestyle is built in agreement with the wish of each and any of us to achieve satisfaction with life, or in philosophical language, happiness. The concept of subjective wellbeing is a fundamental one in the quality-of-life paradigm. The main indicator of the subjective state is satisfaction with life. Global satisfaction with life is the outcome of the degree of fulfillment of the individual as general average of all fields of life. In this indicator are included important human benefits, results of economic growth in relationship with the wishes and aspirations to happiness and welfare. They express the permanent orientation of the individual towards self-development/self-construction. In fact, satisfaction with life, as subjective state of individual wellbeing depends on both economic personal welfare (living standard, income, employment, financial situation) and on the state of society’s organization and governance quality, family situation, type of interpersonal and neighborship relations, social participation, etc. The lifestyle is also a key-factor here. Sectoral indicators of satisfaction with life cover the main spheres of human existence (family, profession, work, free time, safety, civic and political participation, personal development, interpersonal relationships, neighborship and friendship relationships, etc.). Subjective wellbeing or “subjective/perceived quality of life” is a critical structural component of the global state of wellbeing. It is the human filter of the objective living conditions. The subjective quality of life is not just the summation of the quality of life’s components, but more than that, the synthesis of its results: the state of human balance, tranquility, wellness. And, the result might allow accessing happiness, the perpetual aspiration of the human. By means of the subjective indicators for satisfaction with life, happiness benefits of ways for precise measurement and analysis. The concept of happiness is a key-concept of all philosophical systems, but it entered by operational forms also in socio-humane, medical and economic sciences, etc.

Research on Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Language in the Later Period

Research on Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Language in the Later Period

Язык как ключ к реальности: от философии имени к дискурсу

Language and consciousness are two transcendental categories that determine the processes of cognition, thinking, introspection, perception, and subject-object relations. At different stages of philosophy, they were interpreted depending on the dominant philosophical and ideological paradigm in relation to reality, the existential goals of the subject and society, and methodological approaches, e.g., phenomenological, hermeneutical, discursive, etc. This article systematizes the basic concepts of language in various historical epochs, i.e., from antiquity to the XXI century. The evolution of views on language is represented not from the standpoint of self-reference, but through the prism of socio-cultural and socio-historical changes in reality and its relation to the subject. The author traced the development of the philosophy of language and defined the reasons behind the evolution of approaches to language and consciousness. The article attempts to answer two questions: How do different paradigms of the philosophy of language and consciousness approach the matter of subject’s access to the real world? To what extent were paradigm shifts caused by the changing cultural, historical, and socio-political backgrounds? Since evolutionary epistemology identifies gnoseology as one of the main functions of language, the categories of thinking and understanding receive special attention. The growing complexity of the world order affects the relationship between language and consciousness, i.e., from singularity (philosophy of name) to continuality (discourse).

Are Luke’s Community Summaries in Acts 2 and 4 a Cultural Appeal?

Scholars have long suggested that Luke employs idealized, philosophical language to describe the life of the Christ-believing community in Acts 2.44–47 and 4.32–35 for the purpose of garnering social capital for the movement. In defense of this case, many scholars point to the similar cultural appeal evident in descriptions of the communal life of the Essenes in the works of Josephus and Philo. Against this consensus, I argue that the communal summaries of Acts 2 and 4, unlike the comparable accounts in Josephus and Philo, do not share enough distinctive language or themes with any of the various philosophical traditions to merit the claim that Luke alludes to them. Undue attention to these unlikely parallels distracts from the way Luke’s allusion to LXX Deuteronomy, which stands on firmer ground, rhetorically portrays the early Christian community as fulfilling the ideals set down in the Law of Moses—a credible legitimizing technique within an intra-Jewish apologetic context.

Philosophy and the challenges of the digital age

This paper aims at showing the challenges that philosophy faces within the digital age and where it is located. The paper also attempted to show the role of the philosopher. In order to achieve these objectives, the following questioned have been asked: What is the position of philosophy within the digital societies and what challenges and solutions does it show? How does the philosophical, critical mind establish itself again within the takeover of digital age? And how do we establish for a philosophical thought that can get on with the issues of the digital age? The researcher used the analytical descriptive methodology. The study arrived at a range of results: Digitalization, these days, has led to a major change in the world. It also makes up the future. Today, the philosopher should be engaged in the world controlled by digitalization, which is regarded a new challenge for philosophy. The philosopher should also set his role and vision for the various up-to-date inquiries. Philosophy should restate itself regarding its major role as a tool for spreading intellectuality and critical thought. One of the challenges that philosophy faces within the digital age is the philosophical language used as a language of communication and speech. Philosophy should solve the society's problems related to digitalization. Philosophy does not only examine the current issues, but it is also a way of thinking of what should be.

Mental Files

AbstractThe so‐called ‘mental files theory’ in the philosophy of mind stems from an analogy comparing object‐concepts to ‘files’, and the mind to a ‘filing system’. Though this analogy appears in philosophy of mind and language from the 1970s onward, it remains unclear to many how it should be interpreted. The central commitments of the mental files theory therefore also remain unclear. Based on influential uses of the file analogy within philosophy, I elaborate three central explanatory roles for mental files. Next, I outline several common criticisms of the file picture, which have been a source of resistance to the view. Finally, I outline several interpretations of the theory, thus highlighting that the best interpretation of the file‐theory's central analogy remains a live issue.

Этапы большого пути, или Отечественная философия языка второй половины ХХ — начала ХХI века

The article presents the results of the analysis of domestic paradigms of the philosophy of language of the second half of the twentieth – early 21st century. The processes of sequential construction and deconstruction of a series of domestic paradigms of the twentieth century are shown — the ‘new doctrine of language’ (Japhetic theory) (1923–1950), the inter-paradigm period (1950–1956), the ‘new Marxist linguistics’ (1957–1993) and the post–paradigm period (the end of the 90s of the twentieth century – the first quarter of the XXI century). Science is pushed forward not only by the discovery of new facts, but also a new look at old facts. The philosophical, political, national and linguistic problems faced by the government and scientific processes in the twentieth century are described in connection with various aspects of the life of Soviet and post-Soviet society, primarily with language policy. The appeal to the history of the philosophy of language in Russia is intended to help realize the internal logic and continuity of the development of the modern linguistic political culture of the country.

Intuition Talk and Reasoning Markers: A Corpus-Study from the Philosophy of Language

Cappelen (2012) argues against the Thesis of Centrality, that is, against the idea that analytic philosophers rely on intuitions as evidential support for their theories. Cappelen challenges this notion by targeting the “Argument from ‘Intuition’-Talk”, i.e., the idea that intuitions must play a decisive role in the arguments of analytic philosophers because they use intuition talk profusely. This paper empirically examines this claim by assessing the prevalence of intuition talk in critical parts of the arguments. Specifically, it explores whether intuition talk coincides with reasoning markers signifying premises and conclusions. To accomplish this, I will first compile a corpus of articles on taste disagreements. Then, I will conduct two types of analysis: a frequency list analysis, and an analysis of the dispersion of both types of vocabulary along the corpus.

Bystanders’ collective responses set the norm against hate speech

Hate speech incidents often occur in social settings, from public transport to football stadiums. To counteract a prevailing passive attitude towards them, governmental authorities, sociologists, and philosophers stress bystanders’ responsibility to oppose or block hate speech. Here, across two online experiments with UK participants using custom visual vignettes, we provide empirical evidence that bystanders’ expression of opposition can affect how harmful these incidents are perceived, but only as part of a collective response: one expressed by a majority of bystanders present. Experiment 1 (N = 329) shows that the silence or intervention of three bystanders affects the harm caused by hate speech, but one bystander does not. Experiment 2 (N = 269) shows this is not simply a matter of numbers but rather one of norms: only unanimous opposition reduces the public perception of the damage created by the incident. Based on our results, we advance an empirical norm account: group responses to hate speech modulate its harm by indicating either a permissive or a disapproving social norm. Our account and results, showing the need to consider responses to hate speech at a collective level, have direct implications for social psychology, the philosophy of language and public policies.

하나의 해체적 독법

Attempts to read the language experience of the film MINARI from the perspective of Philosophy of Language in Wittgenstein can be proved sufficiently on the textual dimension. However, this study aims to argue that in reverse, the Ordinary Language of MINARI can be established as a reference text in understanding Wittgenstein's philosophy in toto. This is because MINARI and Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Language share the homogenous dialectical worldview. The central methodology for this essay is to reconstruct the logical process of what kind of de-constructive interactions language and ordinary life go through in the drama of MINARI and Wittgenstein's Weltanschuung. Chapter 2, ‘Name and Substance’ will show that the identity of the subject 'I' itself to the world is situated in a variable relationship between Name and Substance. Chapter 3, ‘From Synchronicity to Diachronicity’ attempts to illustrate that the way of existence of life (drama) in the world of 'I' as a social community is altered from a synchronical state to that of the diachronical one through de-constructive processes. Chapter 4, ‘Space of Experience, Experience of Space’ will demonstrate that the space of experience in the perspective of 'I' and the experience of space in the perspective of the world are in a complementary relationship for each other. As a result of this study, it is possible to confirm the significant metaphysical affinity between the authorship of Lee Isaac Chung and Wittgenstein’s expression of life on the textual dimension.

Susan Stebbing on Logical Positivism and Communication

In this paper, I look at Susan Stebbing’s articles and reviews that critically engage logical positivism. These appeared before the publication of A. J. Ayer’s Language, Truth and Logic and helped shape the early British reception of logical positivism. I highlight Stebbing’s adoption of G. E. Moore’s tripartite distinction between knowing a proposition, understanding it, and giving an analysis of it and, in light of this distinction, her focus on whether the principle of verifiability can ground a plausible account of communication. Stebbing thinks not, and I reconstruct her reasons, as well as her own account of communication. In doing this, I relate her criticisms to her rejection of methodological solipsism and her dissatisfaction with the logical positivist treatment of statements about other minds and the past. I also argue that Stebbing’s work provides a bridge to later criticisms of logical positivism by ordinary language philosophers. Foregrounding Stebbing’s engagement with logical positivism, especially her focus on communication, paints a fuller picture of how the logical positivists came to be part of analytic philosophy despite having different concerns than many of the British philosophers engaging their work.

The relationship between Plato’s ‘Cratylus’ and Frege’s ‘Sense and Reference’ in the discourse of the philosophy of language: A continuum or an exploration?

Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Literary Interpretation is Not Just About Meaning

The paper proposes a radical change of focus for understanding the fundamental purpose and value of literary interpretation. It criticises an orthodox view in analytical philosophy of literature, according to which theories of meaning in the philosophy of language, in particular Gricean or speech act or other pragmatic theories, offer the most illuminating way to grasp the relevant principles of interpretation. The argument here is that the application of such theories in this context is not just wrong in detail (this or that theory needs revising) but wrong in principle. The focus is wrong. The importation of philosophy of language distorts the essential character of interpretation, which should be seen as involving not so much meaning as value, not individual sentences but whole works, not obsessed with authorial intention but focused on the protocols of reading.

The teleological modal profile and subjunctive background of organic generation and growth

Formal methods for representing the characteristic features of organic development and growth make it possible to map the large-scale teleological structure of organic activity. This provides a basis for semantically evaluating, or providing a theory of meaning for, talk of organic activity as purposive. For the processes of organic generation and growth are subjunctively robust under a variety of influences characteristic for the kind or species in question, and these subjunctive conditions can be displayed in a two-dimensional array. After motivating and introducing this array, I use its two dimensions to partially account for features of the purposiveness characterizing two sets of exemplars of the plant and animal kingdoms: ferns and cacti, and cheetah and gazelle. The result is a formal framework for interpreting talk of organic activity as purposive, able to be adapted to a range of research traditions in the philosophy of language and the philosophy of biology.

On 'Ontology'

This paper uses the concept of metalinguistic negotiation, drawn from contemporary philosophy of language, to develop a novel interpretation of Carnap and Quine’s debate about ontology. Like recent revisionary accounts of the debate, it argues that the widespread perception of first-order disagreement between the two is misleading, ascribing this misperception to Carnap and Quine’s divergent usage of “ontology” and its cognates. Once this difference is accounted for, their seemingly contradictory claims about the subject can be reconciled, as the two “talk past” each other on the semantic level. Crucially, however, this does not render their dispute merely verbal. Rather, it emerges as a remarkably consequential metalinguistic negotiation over whether the term “ontology” ought to be reinterpreted or replaced for the purposes of positive philosophical theorizing. This reading provides an account of the genuine disagreement that drove Carnap and Quine to engage in their debate and illuminates the broader metaphilosophical convictions that support each of their positions. As such, it addresses an important explanatory challenge facing members of the revisionary camp.

On compatibility between realism and fictionalism: A response to Suárez' proposal

In a series of articles, Mauricio Suárez defends the neutrality of fictionalism with respect to the scientific realism-anti-realism debate. Suárez understands fictionalism from a strictly methodological point of view, linked to the practice of model building in the context of the philosophy of science. He moves away from the type of fictionalism analysed in other areas of philosophy such as metaphysics, the philosophy of language, aesthetics or the philosophy of mathematics. Following Vaihinger's position, he emphasizes the inferential role of fiction in scientific modelling and argues that scientific fictionalism is not incompatible with scientific realism, as is often believed. We argue against Suárez's position and reject the ubiquitous character assigned to fictions in scientific discourse, as well as the deflationary view of scientific realism defended by Suárez. We conclude that when the semantic, epistemic, and metaphysical aspects at stake in the realism-antirealism debate are taken into account, the alleged compatibility between scientific realism and fictionalism starts to generate some tension.

Значение слова и смысл предложения ранней ми­мансы

A correlation between Indian linguaphilosophy and Western philosophy of language is possible with regard to the question of meaning – one of the main issues of any linguo-philosophical teaching. The Indian philosophical tradition, represented by orthodox schools, the main of which is the so-called mīmāṃsā, was guided by the authority of sa­cred scripture – the Vedas, and through critical argumentation was engaged in under­standing and interpreting their content, and therefore unique linguo-philosophical ideas were formed. This work presents the ideas of mīmāṃsā, the general picture of which can be formulated as follows: 1) the doctrine joins the theory of the non-human origin of lan­guage as opposed to the theory of convention; 2) a transcendental approach to language is defended, where the eternal, a priori connection of words and meanings is affirmed, which is the opposite of the naturalistic view; 3) an activity-based approach to the mean­ing of statements/sentences is formulated, which is due to the categorical pair sādhya-sid­dha, i.e. “subject to implementation – realized”, in other words, the logic of process-re­sult, founded in the philosophical teaching of mīmāṃsā, and opposed to the logic of sub­ject-predicate, based on the pair of concepts dharma-dharmin, on which other representa­tives of Indian philosophical thought build their teachings. The work also draws parallels between the mīmāṃsā tradition and the ancient Indian linguistic tradition – vyākaraṇa, which allows us to clarify the nature of the linguo-philosophical ideas of the former, and also describes the theories of the meaning of sentences of the medieval mīmāṃsā – an­vitābhidhāna-vāda and abhihitānvaya-vāda. The linguistic philosophy of the mīmāṃsā tradition, and, in particular, the advocacy of a non-naturalistic attitude to language and an activity-based or even pragmatic approach to the interpretation of sentences is unique both for the history of Indian philosophy and from the point of view of the Western tradi­tion of philosophy of language.

Езикът на философията и езикът на поезията: светът в криза според Джорджо Агамбен

Abstract: The analysis consists in a translational commentary on Giorgio Agamben's essay “When the House Burns Down” (Quando la casa brucia). It outlines the context in which the text of the Italian philosopher can be read in terms of his own philosophy of language. The essay that appeared in the second stage of Agamben’s pandemic critique redirected the attention of the philosopher from the health crisis to the main topics of his tought and the role of the language of poetry and the language of philosophy in it. In addition, the reader will also find Agamben’s essay “When the House Burns“, translated from Italian into Bulgarian by the author of the translation commentary. Keywords: philosophy of language, language of philosophy, language of poetry, metaphor, crisis. Rhetoric and Communications Journal, issue 58, January 2024

Думи на водещите броя

Issue 58, January 2024 is thematically situated in the areas of rhetoric, argumentation and philosophy. There are eight scholarly articles, divided into two sections: Rhetoric and Argumentation and Philosophy, Communication and Society. The two authors (Ulrike Nespital and Christian Heiliger) of the article “Efficacy Study for Co-Teaching in Practices in Rhetoric and Natural Sciences” are from Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. They present the results of a study on rhetoric and more specifically on the formation of presentation skills in students studying technical subjects and science. Hilda Narch is from the Modern University for Business and Science, Lebanon and in her article “Crisis Management Communications System” she presents a theoretical overview of basic concepts related to crisis communication management. This continues a steady tradition of the journal publishing articles by authors from universities in other countries; these are scholars who are established in a particular academic field and who share their expertise as teachers and researchers. Six authors are from Bulgarian educational institutions and research units: Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, University of National and World Economy, NATFA “Krastio Sarafov”, the American University in Bulgaria – Academic Library, etc. Argumentation as part of the rhetorical heritage is presented in the context of judicial rhetoric; the author Metin Ibriyamov focuses on abductive reasoning and abductive schemes in criminal proceedings; he provides a theoretical overview, presents examples and reaches reasonable conclusions on their use. Two of the articles include the results of an analysis of political rhetoric, in particular presidential and presidential candidate rhetoric, exhibited during debates. Maglena Gurkova provides a rhetorical analysis of the pre-election debate between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen held on 3 May 2017; she examines the history, organisation, media context, participants' behaviour, argumentation and non-linguistic means. Maryana Mihaylova analyses presidential candidate debates in Bulgaria in 2016, in particular a televised debate between Rumen Radev and Tsetska Tsacheva, and focuses on the non-verbal communication of presidential contenders in the country. The verbal part of both articles is illustrated with visual elements from the debates, which contributes to a quick and accurate decoding of the presented conclusions. Nora Goleshevska is the author of the scientific publication “Giorgio Agamben’s The language of philosophy and the language of poetry: The world in crisis”. The text is an interesting syncretic version, namely a translational commentary, which is an in-depth analysis and translation of Agamben's text entitled “Quando la casa brucia” (“When the house burns”). In this way, the reader has the opportunity to validate the scholarly analysis with the original text of Giorgio Agamben, one of Italy's most renowned contemporary philosophers, translated into Bulgarian. Stoyanka Delibeeva studies scientific publications and normative documents that refer to a topical issue and studies the influence of language learning and multilingual practices on positive identifications with the European Union at the secondary school stage in Bulgaria. The novelty of the article is to establish the affordances of Q-methodology for the implementation of research in this area. Radina Damyanova presents the results of a content analysis of social networks used by academic libraries in Bulgaria and summarizes the results in tables and charts, presenting an up-to-date picture and recommendations for improving the work of these institutions in understanding the opportunities of reaching different audiences in a fast, effective and contemporary way. The issue is interesting and useful in that it brings together both theoretical overviews and methodological statements; both interpretations from a scientific perspective and results from analyses implemented with contemporary methods.