
Contents
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I.1 Philosophical Questions of Mind and Language I.1 Philosophical Questions of Mind and Language
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I.2 Contemporary Resources I.2 Contemporary Resources
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I.3 Historical Resources I.3 Historical Resources
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I.4 Philosophical Investigations I.4 Philosophical Investigations
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I.5 Phenomenology I.5 Phenomenology
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I.6 The Publicness of Language Logically Entails a Phenomenology of Ostension I.6 The Publicness of Language Logically Entails a Phenomenology of Ostension
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Cite
Extract
To the despisers of the body I want to say my words. I do not think they should relearn and teach differently, instead they should bid their own bodies farewell— and thus fall silent.
—Friedrich Nietzsche1Close
Plato marked a turning point in the appreciation of language by philosophers. In the Cratylus, he shows that words are thoroughly conventional. Those who coin them do so with only a superficial understanding of the things spoken about. Accordingly, philosophical knowledge comes from inquiring into the natures of things rather than from learning to speak. Despite discovering the conventionality of language, Plato still accords speech a crucial role. Insight into the nature of things occurs by means of a conversation carried out with conventional terms: “For this knowledge is not something that can be put into words like other sciences; but after long-continued intercourse between teacher and pupil, in joint pursuit of the subject, suddenly, like light flashing forth when a fire is kindled, it is born in the soul and straightway nourishes itself.”2Close Words, though conventional, are nonetheless significant, for philosophy occurs in the midst of a dialogue carried out by means of them. In this way, Plato represents a striking alternative to someone like René Descartes, who happened upon his fundamental insight without conversing with anyone else. In the Discourse on Method, he recounts the circumstances: “Finding no conversation to divert me and fortunately having no cares or passions to trouble me, I stayed all day shut up alone in a stove-heated room, where I was completely free to converse with myself about my own thoughts.”3Close
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