Four essays on the philosophy of language and the language of philosophy
Abstract
Modern linguistic philosophy came into being with Frege's and Wittgenstein's writings. Metaphorically speaking, natural languages can only be formalized as the language of philosophy when “thoughts are extruded from the mind.” The relation between philosophy and language in the above presumption is far from reciprocal. It is, therefore, the intention of this thesis to examine the inadequacy of a metalanguage that thrives on a primitive notion of truth and a pragmatic concept of recursivity. The first essay deals with the problem of translation. It takes up the leads from Walter Benjamin's early writings to challenge the popular receptionist theories of translation. Translational indeterminacy is not so much a defect of heteroglossia as a historical fact the translator must reckon with in her act of relating different language fragments. In the second essay, different theories of metaphor are reviewed in order to illuminate the deeper metaphysical presumptions of literality and propriety. Instead of understanding metaphorical meaning as deviant or derivative, this essay demonstrates that the operation of metaphor is fundamental to all meaning-conferring acts. Theories of interpretation are the targets of my third essay. The purpose of contrasting the analytical case of radical translation/interpretation with the hermeneutic circle is to argue for the impossibility of a presuppositionless philosophy. In explicating what interpretive empathy should entail, this essay proposes a relationalism that refutes both the claims of relativism and a universal rationality. To interpret, this essay concludes, involves a decision to relate, which is also a form of praxis. The fourth essay is a critical survey of the analytical concept of reference. It advocates the use of the more flexible concept of posit. Positing creates historically significant meaning-entity whereas referring attempts to consolidate empirical correspondence. In displacing scientific discourse from the “heart” of language, reference is concluded to be a “deus ex machina” in a highly specialized portrayal of the world. Although the four essays each has its own unique concerns, there are many threads connecting them together. It is believed that the scrambling of the analytical terrain of the philosophy of language is a fruitful pursuit provided that we likewise, raze the boundary of our language of philosophy.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Schrag, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Philosophy|Language
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