[lit-ideas] Re: Transcendental and otherwise
- From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
- To: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 18:12:54 -0330
Our readers may be interested to know that later editions of this text (post
'92) include a 29th chapter entitled "Transcendentalizing Ordinary Language" by
Walter C. Okshevsky. Dick could barely understand the basic argument but Alan
Bloom (Rorty's mentor since their student days in Chicago) convinced him it
should be included for purposes of fairness and comprehensiveness. It was a
jejeune pre-war ditty of course, but I let him include it after Dick's
insistent and repeated generous offers of suitable compensation.
And, for the record, Gustav stole the phrase from me after I used it to
describe the work of my teacher John Wisdom (or was it John Oulton Wisdom?) We
were having lunch at some pub in Munich with I. Berlin, close to Mariensplatz,
I
think it was, November 1974 therabouts. I told them something of my criticisms
of Logical Positivism, saying basically that there was nothing either logical
or positive about the spurious doctrine. Izzie loved it and took copious notes
which he used in subsequent publications and application for tenure at Oxford.
Gustav asked, in his thick Russian accent, "Are you positive about your
criticisms?" And I replied: "Hey, that's quite a linguistic turn on the
expression." Before I could say "Alfred Jules Ayer," all of Vienna, Oxford and
Thunder Bay was aglow with this newly minted phrase. (True genius is rarely
recognized in its own time, alas.)
Overjoyed at mastering yet another webct distance education online format, and
celebrating accordingly .... (But it's not a philosophy course, on principle.
Nobody can do philosophy online ... as we here can all attest.)
Walter O.
Cambridge, ON
Quoting Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>:
> Walter wrote
>
> > Apart from that one inexcusable foible, I believe RP accurately portrays
> the
> > basic gist of the views of the early Rorty. (Though later than *The
> linguistic
> > turn* of course.)
>
> The Linguistic Turn, as Walter know, although some others may not, is a
> book of important philosophical essays which Rorty edited in 1967. The
> title comes from a remark of Gustav Bergmann's which quickly passed into
> the philosophical lexicon. Rorty's introduction is the best critical
> introduction to the movement often called 'linguistic philosophy,' that
> I know of. I see that the current edition has two retrospective essays
> by Rorty that are not in my old copy. Here's the table of contents (1992):
>
> Introduction
>
> Richard M. Rorty - Metaphysical Difficulties of Linguistic Philosophy
>
> Part I - Classic Statements of the Thesis That Philosophical Questions
> Are Questions of Language
>
> 1. Moritz Schlick - The Future of Philosophy
> 2. Rudolf Carnap - On the Character of Philosophical Problems
> 3. Gustav Bergmann - Logical Positivism, Language, and the
> Reconstruction of Metaphysics (in part)
> 4. Rudolf Carnap - Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology
> 5. Gilbert Ryle - Systematically Misleading Expressions
> 6. John Wisdom - Philosophical Perplexity
> 7. Normal Malcolm - Moore and Ordinary Language
>
> Part II - Metaphilosophical Problems of Ideal-Language Philosophy
>
> 8a. Irving Copi - Language Analysis and Metaphysical Inquiry
> 8b. Gustav Bergmann - Two Criteria for an Ideal Language
> 8c. Irving Copi - Reply to Bergmann
> 9. Max Black - Russell's Philosophy of Language (in part)
> 10a. Alice Ambrose - Linguistic Approaches to Philosophical Problems
> 10b. Roderick Chisholm Comments on the "Proposal Theory" of Philosophy
> 11. James W. Cornman - Language and Ontology
> 12. Willard v. O. Quine - Semantic Ascent (from Word and Object)
>
> Part III - Metaphilosophical Problems of Ordinary-Language Philosophy
>
> 13. Roderick Chisholm - Philosophers and Ordinary Language
> 14. John Passmore - Arguments to Meaninglessness: Excluded Opposites and
> Paradigm Cases (from Philosophical Reasoning)
> 15a. Grover Maxwell and Herbert Feigl - Why Ordinary Language Needs
> Reforming
> 15b. Manley Thompson - When Is Ordinary Language Reformed?
> 16a. Richard Hare - Philosophical Discoveries
> 16b. Paul Henle - Do We Discover Our Uses of Words?
> 17. Peter Geach - Ascriptivism
> 18. James W. Cornman - Uses of Language and Philosophical Problems
> 19. J. O. Urmson - J. L. Austin
> 20a. Stuart Hampshire - J. L. Austin
> 20b. J. O. Urmson and G. Warnock - J. L. Austin
> 20c. Stanley Cavell - Austin at Criticism
> 21. Stuart Hampshire - The Interpretation of Language; Words and Concepts
>
> Part IV - Recapitulations, Reconsiderations, and Future Prospects
>
> 22. Dudley Shapere - Philosophy and the Analysis of Language
> 23. Stuart Hampshire - Are All Philosophical Questions Questions of
> Language?
> 24a. J. O. Urmson - The History of Analysis
> 24b. Discussion of Urmson's "The History of Analysis" (by the
> participants in the 1961 Royaumont Colloquium)
> 25a. P. F. Strawson - Analysis, Science, and Metaphysics
> 25b. Discussion of Strawson's "Analysis, Science and Metaphysics" (by
> the participants in the 1961 Royaumont Colloquium)
> 26. Max Black - Language and Reality
> 27. Jerrold J. Katz - The Philosophical Relevance of Linguistic Theory
> 28. Yehoshua Bar-Hillel - A Pre-Requisite for Rational Philosophical
> Discussion
>
> Two Retrospective Essays by Richard M. Rorty
>
> Ten Years After
>
> Twenty-five Years After
> -----------------------
> Robert Paul
>
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