Martin Puchner
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199730322
- eISBN:
- 9780199852796
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730322.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama
This last chapter outlines some theoretical consequences of dramatic Platonism for contemporary thought. It targets three thoughts evident today: corporealism, linguistic relativism, and cultural ...
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This last chapter outlines some theoretical consequences of dramatic Platonism for contemporary thought. It targets three thoughts evident today: corporealism, linguistic relativism, and cultural relativism. However, dramatic Platonism does not intend to dismiss these three; instead, it only points to the ways in which this doxa of our time might be inquired and reassessed, an act considered to be the most fundamental gesture of dramatic Platonism. To finish, the chapter suggests that it is time to revive Plato—not the discredited Plato of idealism, but the Plato of dramatic Platonism.Less
This last chapter outlines some theoretical consequences of dramatic Platonism for contemporary thought. It targets three thoughts evident today: corporealism, linguistic relativism, and cultural relativism. However, dramatic Platonism does not intend to dismiss these three; instead, it only points to the ways in which this doxa of our time might be inquired and reassessed, an act considered to be the most fundamental gesture of dramatic Platonism. To finish, the chapter suggests that it is time to revive Plato—not the discredited Plato of idealism, but the Plato of dramatic Platonism.
James Underhill
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638420
- eISBN:
- 9780748671809
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638420.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
This book investigates the vigorous and inspiring linguistic philosophy of Wilhelm von Humboldt. Many English-speaking authors speak of a ‘Humboldtian tradition’ and associate Humboldt's name with ...
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This book investigates the vigorous and inspiring linguistic philosophy of Wilhelm von Humboldt. Many English-speaking authors speak of a ‘Humboldtian tradition’ and associate Humboldt's name with research into linguistic relativism and the work of Whorf. But few scholars quote Humboldt's writings, and those who do, often prove only that they fail to perceive the great scope of his work and that they are incapable of seizing the essential principles of Humboldt's ethnolinguistic project. Hegel, Chomsky, Crystal and Habermas all try understand Humboldt through the prism of their own approach to language and ideas. The present work, tries to set the record straight, and to demonstrate why Humboldt's linguistic philosophy will take us much farther than the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Humboldt's work lays down a challenge to philosophy, which has difficulty in taking into account language as it is created and maintained in the world. At the same time, it represents no less of a challenge to approaches to language which seek to step over individual writing and speech, and speak of ‘language’ in abstraction, or seek the deeper structures of cognition. Humboldt takes us back to the origin of language, speech. His concept of language is supra-subjective. Individuals become individuals through language, through conversation in linguistic communities. At the same time Humboldt takes us back to languages in all their diversity. Finding something universal in that diversity, and something essentially specific in each facet of the universal faculty of language is the twin force of Humboldt's vast synthesis of empirical findings.Less
This book investigates the vigorous and inspiring linguistic philosophy of Wilhelm von Humboldt. Many English-speaking authors speak of a ‘Humboldtian tradition’ and associate Humboldt's name with research into linguistic relativism and the work of Whorf. But few scholars quote Humboldt's writings, and those who do, often prove only that they fail to perceive the great scope of his work and that they are incapable of seizing the essential principles of Humboldt's ethnolinguistic project. Hegel, Chomsky, Crystal and Habermas all try understand Humboldt through the prism of their own approach to language and ideas. The present work, tries to set the record straight, and to demonstrate why Humboldt's linguistic philosophy will take us much farther than the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Humboldt's work lays down a challenge to philosophy, which has difficulty in taking into account language as it is created and maintained in the world. At the same time, it represents no less of a challenge to approaches to language which seek to step over individual writing and speech, and speak of ‘language’ in abstraction, or seek the deeper structures of cognition. Humboldt takes us back to the origin of language, speech. His concept of language is supra-subjective. Individuals become individuals through language, through conversation in linguistic communities. At the same time Humboldt takes us back to languages in all their diversity. Finding something universal in that diversity, and something essentially specific in each facet of the universal faculty of language is the twin force of Humboldt's vast synthesis of empirical findings.
Russell Daylight
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748641970
- eISBN:
- 9780748671564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748641970.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
Between 1907 and 1911, Ferdinand de Saussure gave three series of lectures on the topic of general linguistics. After his death, these lecture notes were gathered together by his students and ...
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Between 1907 and 1911, Ferdinand de Saussure gave three series of lectures on the topic of general linguistics. After his death, these lecture notes were gathered together by his students and published as the Course in General Linguistics. And in the last 100 years, there has been no more influential and divisive reading of Saussure than that of Jacques Derrida. This book is an examination of Derrida's philosophical reconstruction of Saussurean linguistics, of the paradigm shift from structuralism to post-structuralism, and of the consequences that continue to resonate in every field of the humanities today. Despite the importance of Derrida's critique of Saussure for cultural studies, philosophy, linguistics and literary theory, this book presents the first analysis. The magnitude of the task undertaken here makes this book a resource for those wishing to interrogate the encounter beyond appearances or received wisdom. In this process of a close reading, the following themes become sites of debate between Derrida and Saussure: the originality of Saussure within the history of Western metaphysics; the relationship between speech and writing; the relationship between différance and difference; the intervention of time in structuralism; linguistic relativism and the role of the language user. This commentary also poses new questions to structuralism and post-structuralism, and opens up new terrain in linguistic and political thought.Less
Between 1907 and 1911, Ferdinand de Saussure gave three series of lectures on the topic of general linguistics. After his death, these lecture notes were gathered together by his students and published as the Course in General Linguistics. And in the last 100 years, there has been no more influential and divisive reading of Saussure than that of Jacques Derrida. This book is an examination of Derrida's philosophical reconstruction of Saussurean linguistics, of the paradigm shift from structuralism to post-structuralism, and of the consequences that continue to resonate in every field of the humanities today. Despite the importance of Derrida's critique of Saussure for cultural studies, philosophy, linguistics and literary theory, this book presents the first analysis. The magnitude of the task undertaken here makes this book a resource for those wishing to interrogate the encounter beyond appearances or received wisdom. In this process of a close reading, the following themes become sites of debate between Derrida and Saussure: the originality of Saussure within the history of Western metaphysics; the relationship between speech and writing; the relationship between différance and difference; the intervention of time in structuralism; linguistic relativism and the role of the language user. This commentary also poses new questions to structuralism and post-structuralism, and opens up new terrain in linguistic and political thought.
C.J.W. Baaij
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190680787
- eISBN:
- 9780190680817
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190680787.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
Three arguments point toward source-oriented EU Translation as the preferred alternative to current EU Translation practices. First, an original quantitative study of case law of the Court of Justice ...
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Three arguments point toward source-oriented EU Translation as the preferred alternative to current EU Translation practices. First, an original quantitative study of case law of the Court of Justice of the EU suggests that neologisms for EU legal concepts and syntactic correspondence between language versions is more likely to prevent discrepancies than pursue clarity and intelligibility. Second, the same case law demonstrates that legislative measures seeking far-reaching legal integration, such as in consumer contract law, call for a particular large degree of textual homogeny of its language version. Third, the work of language philosopher Donald Davidson helps illuminate the fact that the philosophical justification of a source-oriented approach avoids the pitfall of linguistic relativism that is afflicting theories proposing receiver-oriented translation. In all, these arguments signal that EU translators and lawyer–linguists of the EU legislative bodies had better prioritize syntactic correspondence and using neologisms over clarity and fluency.Less
Three arguments point toward source-oriented EU Translation as the preferred alternative to current EU Translation practices. First, an original quantitative study of case law of the Court of Justice of the EU suggests that neologisms for EU legal concepts and syntactic correspondence between language versions is more likely to prevent discrepancies than pursue clarity and intelligibility. Second, the same case law demonstrates that legislative measures seeking far-reaching legal integration, such as in consumer contract law, call for a particular large degree of textual homogeny of its language version. Third, the work of language philosopher Donald Davidson helps illuminate the fact that the philosophical justification of a source-oriented approach avoids the pitfall of linguistic relativism that is afflicting theories proposing receiver-oriented translation. In all, these arguments signal that EU translators and lawyer–linguists of the EU legislative bodies had better prioritize syntactic correspondence and using neologisms over clarity and fluency.
Mette Bundvad
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198739708
- eISBN:
- 9780191802652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198739708.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Chapter 2 discusses the thinking on time in the Hebrew Bible on a general level, and in Qohelet specifically. The discussion centres on the alleged impossibility of expressing in biblical Hebrew the ...
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Chapter 2 discusses the thinking on time in the Hebrew Bible on a general level, and in Qohelet specifically. The discussion centres on the alleged impossibility of expressing in biblical Hebrew the notion of abstract time or time as a general idea. In addition, a related but more radical claim—that the Hebrew Bible writers had no concept of time at all—is evaluated. Referring to discussions within linguistics regarding linguistic relativism and translation, the chapter argues that one cannot reject the ability of Hebrew Bible authors to reflect and write on the theme of time on linguistic grounds. The chapter also considers anthropological material used by scholars to reject the presence of thinking on time in ancient Judaism. It is emphasized that the book of Qohelet contains exactly the sort of extended discussion of temporal themes which scholars often claim is absent from the Hebrew Bible.Less
Chapter 2 discusses the thinking on time in the Hebrew Bible on a general level, and in Qohelet specifically. The discussion centres on the alleged impossibility of expressing in biblical Hebrew the notion of abstract time or time as a general idea. In addition, a related but more radical claim—that the Hebrew Bible writers had no concept of time at all—is evaluated. Referring to discussions within linguistics regarding linguistic relativism and translation, the chapter argues that one cannot reject the ability of Hebrew Bible authors to reflect and write on the theme of time on linguistic grounds. The chapter also considers anthropological material used by scholars to reject the presence of thinking on time in ancient Judaism. It is emphasized that the book of Qohelet contains exactly the sort of extended discussion of temporal themes which scholars often claim is absent from the Hebrew Bible.
