structure for 'Philosophy'    |     alphabetical list of themes    |     expand these ideas

1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 5. Linguistic Analysis

[analysis focusing on formal or ordinary language]

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