University of Notre Dame Press Linguistics and Philosophy: An Essay on the Philosophical Constants of Language

Product Description The dual purpose of this volume-to provide a distinctively philosophical introduction to logic, as well as a logic-oriented approach to philosophy-makes it a unique and worthwhile primary text for logic or philosophy courses. Review "Gilson has attempted to speak from the tradition of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas to contemporary philosophers, not only to linguists, to whom this book is principally addressed, but to all, such as analysts, who give great attention to language. He makes . . .an argument that is well worth hearing. Philosophers should take from this book not only the principal argument . . . but also the implied judgement of the place of the philosopher in science. Gilson treats linguistics as a science that stands in need of philosophical reasoning in order to perform its proper scientific function. Too often . . . the philosopher's job is thought to be one of commenting on the scientist's work after the scientist's work has been done in a vacuum completely free of any philosophical impurity. . . . The scientific project is not a project separate from philosophy, but is a thoroughly philosophical project from beginning to end, although this fact is not always adverted to by the scientists. . . . Gilson has given in this book . . . excellent evidence of how the philosopher should work with scientific evidence to further the pursuit of truth, which is at once scientific and philosophical. ― Canadian Philosophical Review ― Canadian Philosophical Review About the Author Etienne Gilson was born in Paris in 1884. He became Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the Sorbonne in 1921, and from 1932 until his retirement in 1951 he held a similar chair at the College de France. From 1929 until his death in 1978 he was associated with the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. John Lyon is emeritus professor of liberal studies at the University of Notre Dame.