Philosophy and Ordinary Language: The Bent and Genius of our Tongue (Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Philosophy)

What is philosophy about and what are its methods? Philosophy and Ordinary Language is a defence of the view that philosophy is largely about questions of language, which to a large extent means ordinary language. Some people argue that if philosophy is about ordinary language, then it is necessarily less deep and difficult than it is usually taken to be but Oswald Hanfling shows us that this isn't true. Hanfling, a leading expert in the development of analytic philosophy, covers a wide range of topics, including scepticism and the definition of knowledge, free will, empiricism, folk psychology, ordinary versus artificial logic, and philosophy versus science. Drawing on philosophers such as Austin, Wittgenstein, and Quine, this book explores the nature of ordinary language in philosophy. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Acknowledgements......Page 10 List of abbreviations......Page 11 Introduction......Page 14 The philosophy of 'what we say': its practice and justification......Page 26 Socrates and the quest for definitions......Page 28 Austin: 'at least one philosophical method'......Page 39 Wittgenstein: bringing words 'back to their everyday use'......Page 51 'What we say': who says?......Page 66 What is wrong with the paradigm case argument?......Page 87 Knowledge and the uses of 'knowledge'......Page 107 The paradox of scepticism......Page 124 The philosophy of 'what we say': challenge and rejection......Page 140 Drawing the curtain of words......Page 142 Language remade: ancient cities and orderly towns......Page 163 Grice: 'true even if misleading'......Page 189 Quine and the unity of science......Page 216 Scientific realism: discovering what we really mean......Page 235 'Folk psychology' and the language of science......Page 257 Index......Page 275 Anyone Wishing To Gain A Better Understanding Of The Philosophy Of Language, And The Nature Of Ordinary Language In Philosophy Should Read This Book.