Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| The relation of language and thought: this problem has been discussed since ancient philosophy and is today present in psychological research. It runs down to the question whether speechless animals are able to have thoughts. See also language, animal language, meaning, signs, communication, thinking, world/thinking._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Ancient Philosophy on Language and Thought - Dictionary of Arguments
Gadamer I 421 Language and Thought/Ancient Philosophy/Gadamer: Experience is not at first wordless and is then made an object of reflection by naming it, for example in the way of subsumption under the generality of the word. Rather, it is part of experience itself that it seeks and finds the words that express it. Although Aristotle himself does not explicitly connect the formation of concepts with the problem of word formation and the learning of language, Themistius can easily exemplify it in his paraphrase with language learning in children. That is how much language lies in logos. If Greek philosophy does not want to acknowledge this relationship between word and thing, speaking and thinking, it is probably because thinking had to defend itself against the close relationship between word and thing in which the speaking person lives. The dominion of these most speakable of all languages (Nietzsche) on thinking was so great that the Gadamer I 422 bigest effort of the task of philosophy was to free oneself from it. Thus, from early on in the "Onoma", the Greek philosophers fought against the seduction and aberration of thought and, against it, adhered to the ideality constantly carried out in language. This already applies to Parmenides, who thought the truth of the matter from the logos - and this completely since the Platonic turn to the "speeches" which is also followed by the Aristotelian orientation of the forms of being to the forms of statement (schemata tas katégorias). Because the direction towards the eidos was conceived here as the determining factor of the logos, the own being of language could only be thought as an aberration, whose banishment and mastery was the effort of thinking. The criticism of the correctness of the names that is carried out in "Cratylos" (Name/Plato, >Language/Plato), therefore, already represents the first step in a direction at the end of which lies the modern instrumental theory of language and the ideal of a sign system of reason. Squeezed between image and sign, the being of language could only be leveled into pure signhood. Cf. >Incarnation/Gadamer, >Language/Christianity, >Creation/Gadamer, >Tritinity/Gadamer._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Ancient Philosophy Gadamer I Hans-Georg Gadamer Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik 7. durchgesehene Auflage Tübingen 1960/2010 Gadamer II H. G. Gadamer The Relevance of the Beautiful, London 1986 German Edition: Die Aktualität des Schönen: Kunst als Spiel, Symbol und Fest Stuttgart 1977 |
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> Counter arguments against Ancient Philosophy
> Counter arguments in relation to Language and Thought
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-27