Good Books in the Philosophy of Language

[ComradeRed]

I am reading this series of technical papers on "Language" in topos and its role in quantum mechanics, and I wanted to brush up on my philosophy of language. (The papers are to my understanding of it thus far trying to make quantum mechanics into something like a "programming language" of the universe.)

I have jotted down:
Language Truth and Logic by A. J. Ayer
Tractatus Logico Philosophicus by Wittgenstein

Anything else?

[bretty]

For more books on Wittgenstein check out:

Roger M. White Tractatus Logico Philosophicus: A Reader's Guide.

Wittgenstein by Anthony Kenny

Both recommended by Rosa.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Red, the books Bretty mentioned are ecellent, but they are about Wittgensatin.

The best book available in the philosophy of language (i.e., from a Wittgensteinian angle) is

Hanna, P., and Harrison, B. (2004), 'Word And World. Practice And The Foundations Of Language' (Cambridge University Press).

And the best introduction is:

Harrison, B. (1979), An Introduction To The Philosophy Of Language (Macmillan).

There are scores of books not in that tradition, one of the best being:

Lycan, G. (1999), Philosophy Of Language (Routledge).

If you want something more formal, try:

Platts, M. (1997), Ways Of Meaning (MITPress, 2nd ed.).

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

By the way Red, I'd give the Ayer a miss, if I were you: the title is 100% misleading: it's not about language, contains little that is true, and nothing that is logical.

A far better book from this period is Frederick Waismann's 'The Principles of Linguitic Philosophy' (Macmillan, 1997), which is a nice introduction to Wittgenstein's ideas (from his 'middle period), as interpreted by Waismann.

[ComradeRed]

Originally posted by Rosa [email protected] 03, 2007 05:36 am
By the way Red, I'd give the Ayer a miss, if I were you: the title is 100% misleading: it's not about language, contains little that is true, and nothing that is logical.

A far better book from this period is Frederick Waismann's 'The Principles of Linguitic Philosophy' (Macmillan, 1997), which is a nice introduction to Wittgenstein's ideas (from his 'middle period), as interpreted by Waismann.
I was reading the table of contents, and something of interest struck me in the table of contents (something along the lines of "probabilities as degrees of truth" or something of that sort).

I thought I'd check it out anyways.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Well, if you are interested in 'degrees of truth' (an obscure notion in itself) there are better and far more up-to-date books than this egregious book.

[syndicat]

I would recommend "Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction" by John Post. This may seem implausible if the subject is philosophy of language, but actually a great deal of the book is about philosophy of language. He discusses things such as Saussure's structuralism and Millikan's biosemantics and other views. The book is intended for the unitiated lay person.