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INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
'... a masterly introduction to the central issues that have defined the field since Frege.' Teaching Philosophy
- GenresLinguisticsPhilosophy
320 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1979
About the author
Bernard Harrison
17 books8 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
See this thread for more information.
Bernard Harrison is currently Emeritus E.E. Ericksen Professor of Philosophy in the University of Utah and Emeritus Professor of the University of Sussex. He is one of a number of analytic philosophers, more numerous now than formerly, whose interests include literature and its relationships with philosophy and the history of ideas.
His literary work includes Fielding's Tom Jones: The Novelist as Moral Philosopher (Chatto, 1975), and Inconvenient Fictions: Literature and the Limits of Theory (Yale University Press, 1991), and numerous papers.
His more strictly philosophical work has ranged between philosophy of language, ethics, the philosophy of Wittgenstein and the philosophy of language. His Word and World: Practice and the Foundations of Language (Cambridge University Press, 2004), co-authored with his Utah colleague Patricia Hanna, offers a systematic rethinking, with implications, among other things, for literary studies, of the philosophy of language as it has developed since Russell and Frege, on the basis of a new reading of Wittgenstein. His The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel and Liberal Opinion (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006) examines opposing opinions about anti-Semitism, Zioism, and the actions of the Israeli state. His most recent book, What Is Fiction For? (2015), 'presents a systematic defense of humanism in literary studies, and the study of the Humanities more generally'.
Professor Harrison is currently researching a second book on antisemitism, Blaming the Jews: The Persistence of a Delusion, to be published by Indiana University Press in 2020.
See this thread for more information.
Bernard Harrison is currently Emeritus E.E. Ericksen Professor of Philosophy in the University of Utah and Emeritus Professor of the University of Sussex. He is one of a number of analytic philosophers, more numerous now than formerly, whose interests include literature and its relationships with philosophy and the history of ideas.
His literary work includes Fielding's Tom Jones: The Novelist as Moral Philosopher (Chatto, 1975), and Inconvenient Fictions: Literature and the Limits of Theory (Yale University Press, 1991), and numerous papers.
His more strictly philosophical work has ranged between philosophy of language, ethics, the philosophy of Wittgenstein and the philosophy of language. His Word and World: Practice and the Foundations of Language (Cambridge University Press, 2004), co-authored with his Utah colleague Patricia Hanna, offers a systematic rethinking, with implications, among other things, for literary studies, of the philosophy of language as it has developed since Russell and Frege, on the basis of a new reading of Wittgenstein. His The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel and Liberal Opinion (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006) examines opposing opinions about anti-Semitism, Zioism, and the actions of the Israeli state. His most recent book, What Is Fiction For? (2015), 'presents a systematic defense of humanism in literary studies, and the study of the Humanities more generally'.
Professor Harrison is currently researching a second book on antisemitism, Blaming the Jews: The Persistence of a Delusion, to be published by Indiana University Press in 2020.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
December 26, 2017
Of all the histories or textbooks on philosophy, this is the best. He does make a couple of original contributions, too. Really excellent.
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09/2024
I had to refer to his chapter on Davidson when I recently read a collection of Davidson essays. And I liked it so much that I decided to read the whole book again.
After a brief explanation of what he calls the autonomy of language (the signs of a language dictate the interpretation that a speaker of the language places on them), he begins with Locke, who “reveals innumerable pitfalls by falling into them.” (p. 26)
From Locke (and a bit of Hume) he moves quickly to Frege. And the rest of the book is about the philosophers who have responded to Frege in one way or another. You get to know Quine and Russell, Searle and Grice, Strawson, Davidson, Kripke, Putnam, Dummett, and a number of other philosophers who were influential in the 1970s. The book was written in 1979, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it summarizes the state of the art in philosophy of language at that time.
He also adds two chapters on Wittgenstein at the end of the book. This is because he thinks that Wittgenstein, for all his alleged influence, was not that influential on the philosophers mentioned, and at the same time his views on the subject (in Harrison's interpretation) differ from theirs and are also right (or more to the point).
The book is entirely about the analytic tradition of philosophy, and heavily focused on the (then) current trends (Russell, for example, is mentioned only in passing). But this is great, I think, it is not a history of philosophy of language. Whether it is really an introduction can also be doubted. On the one hand, Harrison allows himself to make original contributions (like his autonomy and his interpretation of Wittgenstein), on the other hand, he really expects some prior knowledge. When Quine is introduced, for example, he jumps right into the discussion, and you might think you have turned over a page explaining who he was and what he said.
But if you have some basic understanding of the background, this book is really excellent. Harrison not only manages to explain the theories (sometimes better than the original authors, as in the case of Davidson), he also contrasts them and puts them into perspective.
I highly recommend reading the book (assuming, perhaps wrongly, that not much has happened since then).
On the other hand, maybe this is a terrible book. Because one on our Goodreaders has rated the book with one star. She is 24 and has read 36000 books! So maybe she does know better.
--------
09/2024
I had to refer to his chapter on Davidson when I recently read a collection of Davidson essays. And I liked it so much that I decided to read the whole book again.
After a brief explanation of what he calls the autonomy of language (the signs of a language dictate the interpretation that a speaker of the language places on them), he begins with Locke, who “reveals innumerable pitfalls by falling into them.” (p. 26)
From Locke (and a bit of Hume) he moves quickly to Frege. And the rest of the book is about the philosophers who have responded to Frege in one way or another. You get to know Quine and Russell, Searle and Grice, Strawson, Davidson, Kripke, Putnam, Dummett, and a number of other philosophers who were influential in the 1970s. The book was written in 1979, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it summarizes the state of the art in philosophy of language at that time.
He also adds two chapters on Wittgenstein at the end of the book. This is because he thinks that Wittgenstein, for all his alleged influence, was not that influential on the philosophers mentioned, and at the same time his views on the subject (in Harrison's interpretation) differ from theirs and are also right (or more to the point).
The book is entirely about the analytic tradition of philosophy, and heavily focused on the (then) current trends (Russell, for example, is mentioned only in passing). But this is great, I think, it is not a history of philosophy of language. Whether it is really an introduction can also be doubted. On the one hand, Harrison allows himself to make original contributions (like his autonomy and his interpretation of Wittgenstein), on the other hand, he really expects some prior knowledge. When Quine is introduced, for example, he jumps right into the discussion, and you might think you have turned over a page explaining who he was and what he said.
But if you have some basic understanding of the background, this book is really excellent. Harrison not only manages to explain the theories (sometimes better than the original authors, as in the case of Davidson), he also contrasts them and puts them into perspective.
I highly recommend reading the book (assuming, perhaps wrongly, that not much has happened since then).
On the other hand, maybe this is a terrible book. Because one on our Goodreaders has rated the book with one star. She is 24 and has read 36000 books! So maybe she does know better.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review