| 14027 | If we are to use words in enquiry, we need their main, unambiguous and uncontested meanings [Epicurus] |
| 13313 | Even philosophers have got bogged down in analysing tiny bits of language [Seneca] |
| 22764 | Ordinary speech is not exact about what is true; we say we are digging a well before the well exists [Sext.Empiricus] |
| 24033 | Most scholastic disputes concern words, where agreeing on meanings would settle them [Descartes] |
| 17200 | We must be careful to keep words distinct from ideas and images [Spinoza] |
| 23657 | The existence of tensed verbs shows that not all truths are necessary truths [Reid] |
| 20947 | Thoughts are learnt through words, so language shows the limits and shape of our knowledge [Herder] |
| 6918 | Philosophy should not focus on names, but on the determined nature of things [Feuerbach] |
| 16012 | Philosophy can't be unbiased if it ignores language, as that is no more independent than individuals are [Kierkegaard] |
| 20121 | Grammar only reveals popular metaphysics [Nietzsche] |
| 9841 | Frege was the first to give linguistic answers to non-linguistic questions [Frege, by Dummett] |
| 9840 | Frege initiated linguistic philosophy, studying number through the sense of sentences [Frege, by Dummett] |
| 14456 | 'Socrates is human' expresses predication, and 'Socrates is a man' expresses identity [Russell] |
| 21552 | Common speech is vague; its vocabulary and syntax must be modified, for precision [Russell] |
| 7529 | All philosophy should begin with an analysis of propositions [Russell] |
| 14109 | The study of grammar is underestimated in philosophy [Russell] |
| 18732 | We don't need a theory of truth, because we use the word perfectly well [Wittgenstein] |
| 18274 | Analysis complicates a statement, but only as far as the complexity of its meaning [Wittgenstein] |
| 22490 | Bring words back from metaphysics to everyday use [Wittgenstein] |
| 6429 | All complex statements can be resolved into constituents and descriptions [Wittgenstein] |
| 23492 | Our language is an aspect of biology, and so its inner logic is opaque [Wittgenstein] |
| 23510 | Most philosophical questions arise from failing to understand the logic of language [Wittgenstein] |
| 2938 | The limits of my language means the limits of my world [Wittgenstein] |
| 17651 | Without words or other symbols, we have no world [Goodman] |
| 21960 | Ordinary language is the beginning of philosophy, but there is much more to it [Austin,JL] |
| 7921 | Close examination of actual word usage is the only sure way in philosophy [Strawson,P] |
| 5486 | Essentialism says metaphysics can't be done by analysing unreliable language [Ellis] |
| 8349 | The best way to do ontology is to make sense of our normal talk [Davidson] |
| 16512 | Semantic facts are preferable to transcendental philosophical fiction [Wiggins] |
| 13974 | If philosophy is analysis of meaning, available to all competent speakers, what's left for philosophers? [Soames] |
| 3312 | There are the 'is' of predication (a function), the 'is' of identity (equals), and the 'is' of existence (quantifier) [Benardete,JA] |
| 7001 | If you begin philosophy with language, you find yourself trapped in it [Heil] |
| 6887 | Linguistic philosophy approaches problems by attending to actual linguistic usage [Mautner] |
| 10308 | Questions about objects are questions about certain non-vacuous singular terms [Hale] |
| 14092 | Philosophers are often too fussy about words, dismissing perfectly useful ordinary terms [Rosen] |
| 7923 | 'Did it for the sake of x' doesn't involve a sake, so how can ontological commitments be inferred? [Macdonald,C] |
| 16325 | Analysis rests on natural language, but its ideal is a framework which revises language [Halbach] |
| 4465 | Note that "is" can assert existence, or predication, or identity, or classification [PG] |