Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Series | Book | Chapter

194065

Linguistic philosophy and the meaning of life

Kai Nielsen

pp. 3-29

Abstract

Anglo-Saxon philosophy has in various degrees "gone linguistic". From the faithful attention to the niceties of plain English practiced by John Austin, to the use of descriptive linguistics initiated by Paul Ziff in his Semantic Analysis, to the deliberately more impressionistic concern with language typical of Isaiah Berlin and Stuart Hampshire, there is a pervasive emphasis by English-speaking philosophers on what can and cannot be said, on what is intelligible, and on what is nonsensical. When linguistic philosphy was first developing, many things were said to be nonsense which were not nonsense. However, this is something of the past, for linguistic philosophy has for a long time been less truculent and more diffident about what it makes sense to say, but only to become - some would say - unbelievably bland, dull and without a rationale that is of any general interest.1

Publication details

Published in:

Horosz William, Clements Tad S. (1987) Religion and human purpose: a cross disciplinary approach. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 3-29

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-3483-2_1

Full citation:

Nielsen Kai (1987) „Linguistic philosophy and the meaning of life“, In: W. Horosz & T. S. Clements (eds.), Religion and human purpose, Dordrecht, Springer, 3–29.