Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [language]

173 questions
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Since words are defined in terms of other words in dictionaries, leading to infinite loops, does it mean natural languages are meaningless?

Since words are defined in terms of other words in dictionaries, leading to infinite loops, does it mean natural languages are meaningless? Are infinitely recursive definitions valid? If we visualize the relationship graph of a dictionary, where…
xwb
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Is there a point to arguing about the meaning of words?

Firstly, I should mention that I am not sure, whether this the right place to ask such a question, but I am trying it anyway. Furthermore, one could say I come from a mathematics background and I am not familiar with common terminology in philosophy…
Stefan Perko
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Does languange somehow filter what we can know?

I've read a proposition somewhere: That our languange acts as a filter, allowing us to know certain things while making it impossible to know the rest(1). It seems that mathematics has some things like this, certain phenomena could only be explained…
Red Banana
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Is mathematics a language?

Galileo gave the metaphor that the natural world is written in the language of mathematics, but is mathematics even a language?
Geremia
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If "the limits of my language are the limits of my world", then how can it be that "what can be shown, cannot be said"?

I'm trying to understand Wittgenstein, but two of his most oft quoted statements seem to me to be implying contradicting things. I understand that later Wittgenstein did refute a lot of his earlier ideas, but these statements both come from the…
Dylan
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Asking a genie for more wishes

I just saw this SMBC comic. The second picture looked really promising, but as far as I see it, this attorney screwed up. With his second wish it doesn't matter whether you say wish or splork, so effectively the genie was forbidding to splork for…
Jack
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Is music just another language?

In this video (starting around 00:28:30) the interviewer, Bryan Magee, and Noam Chomsky discuss musical composition as a form of thinking without language. But it seems trivial to me that music is a language like any other: a set of sound symbols…
Alexander S King
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What do they call philosophers in China?

The English word "philosopher" comes from the Greek, and literally means "lover of wisdom." But what is the literal translation of the analogous term in Chinese? (There's more to this question than idle curiosity --I'm interested in how other…
Chris Sunami
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Why are conditionals with false antecedents considered true?

I don't understand what conceptual sense this scenario makes, or what the motivation behind the decision to make conditionals with a false antecedent true was. Can anyone help me understand this? Also, I have a related but ultimately separate…
IgnorantCuriosity
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Is there an idea of linguistic realism similar to moral realism?

The better way to phrase it is: "Are there objective truths about language?" -- this question is parallel to the question of moral realism: "Are there objective moral truths"? One way to interpret moral subjectivity is that it implies that "what…
Dave
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Could a programming language be considered as a language?

This question might seem like it answers itself, but I urge you to consider the possibilities and the impact this could have on society. As a systems engineer, programming is more common to me than my "native" language - English. My understanding is…
Kraang Prime
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How does Epistemology show that it's not a language game?

I'm looking for pointers towards texts that treat the issue of "doing philosophy with language" as a foundational problem-- which must be justified in order to go on and make meaningful statements about "normal" problems in philosophy. Short…
Max Wallace
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What is the difference between the "is" of predication and the "is" of identity?

What is the difference between these, the "is" of predication and the "is" of identity? For example, when I say, "my pet is a cat", am I using "is" as an identity or as a predicate?
ado sar
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Chomsky-- On Language and the Essential Chomsky

I have taken an interest in the philosophy of language and have studied on my own the equivalent of a undergrad course in the philosophy of language. I want to know if Chomsky's On Language is accessible to someone at my level and whether it would…
Barinder Singh
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Why is private language an incoherent idea?

The fact that I have no problem imagining a private language probably implies that I don't understand the notion of private language. My understanding is private language is a language understandable by only a single individual. Is it a claim…
Ahmed Abdullah
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