Philosophy Of Language: Is Language Important To Philosophers?

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I have had some issues with friends who think I act smart when the question of language is being asked. I have tried to explain to some that while they focus on mere semantics or which sentence is right or wrong, as a philosopher, I am more concerned about the meanings of those words.

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A word can mean one thing to anybody, but to a philosopher, that word might mean 100 things. We read meanings to words not because we are smart but because some words are pregnant with meanings.

For instance, if it is asked: Have you stopped beating your wife? Anybody could easily answer yes or no but the question is not one that requires a yes or no answer.

If you answered yes, then it means you have been beating your wife but you have now stopped.

If you answered no, then it means you have been beating your wife and you still do.

So we look at the possible interpretations and implications of every word.

This is an important topic a philosopher in the embryo will learn under philosophy of language. I will briefly introduce you guys to philosophy of language. To do this, we need to at least, know the meaning of language.

What Is Language?

Language, according to David Lewis, is something which assigns meanings to certain strings, to types of sounds or marks. Language, he argues is a social phenomenon which is part of the natural history of human beings: a sphere of human action, wherein people utter strings of vocal sounds, or inscribe strings of marks, and wherein people respond by thought or action to the sounds or mark which they observed to have been so produced.

G.O Ozumba sees language as an art and a science. By art, it means language requires some creative skills and ability to weave ideas together into a well strewn network of thought. By science, it means language is not fortuitous but systematic, coherent and follows a discoverable pattern with roles and expectations. For Ozumba, language consists of words and words are carriers of ideas and thought.

What is philosophy of language?

There are many disagreements of what philosophy of language is all about. The analytic philosophers (Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, G.E Moore, etc.) maintain that philosophy of language is concerned with four problems which are:

• The nature of meaning
• Language use
• Language cognition
• Ralationship between language and reality

According to Ozumba, philosophy of language is the philosophical method of rigour, analysis and critical thinking to the use and understanding of language in philosophy and any other discipline for that matter, including science.

Philosophers of language inquire into the nature of meaning, and seek to explain what it means to ‘mean something’. They seek to understand what speakers and listeners do with language in communicating and how it is used socially. They investigate how language and meaning relate to truth ad the world at large.

Philosophy of language is regarded as being primarily concerned with what words means and how they relate to the world. Under philosophy of language, we look at the meaning of words, meaning of meaning, relationship between words and what they describe, can we know truth using words, can words fully describe things? etc.

If a philosopher asks you what is the meaning of anything or what do you mean by saying certain things, he wants to be sure you understand the word you are using very well. This is because that word might be misinterpreted. Understanding the speaker clearly is very important so as not to give a wrong picture of the message being passed to the audience.

So if I ask you ‘what do you mean by’… i want you to explain further so as not to claim I misinterpreted your words. Or you see single ‘quotation mark’ before and after a word I used or anybody, it means, the meaning is personal – that is, mine alone.

Choose words carefully, they mean more than you can imagine. They can put you in trouble and can also save you if you master them. 

I am a student of language, philosophy taught me that!

Thanks for reading. Your boy @smyle the philosopher