CONESA, Francisco - NUBIOLA, Jaime Filosofía del lenguaje

THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE

Francisco CONESA / Jaime NUBIOLA

This book undertakes a systematic analysis of the fundamental questions that have dominated philosophical reflection regarding language, particularly in the 20th century. Philosophy has never taken language for granted, considering it an activity at the center of human existence, and has asked questions about its raison d'etre and about how and why we refer to objects and ideas through language. The philosophers of the classical age also treated the subject, but not on the same scale as has been the case since the end of the 19th century, when it has become a pivotal theme of philosophical debate. At the beginning of the 20th century philosophy focused like never before on language and re-examined the old philosophical problems in linguistic terms.

After looking at some introductory themes, the authors examine the theory of signs (semiotic), the theory of the signified (semantic), and the theory of the signifying act (pragmatic). The discussion about these subjects incorporates commentaries on the thinking of the great masters of the philosophy of language, particularly that of Peirce and Wittgenstein. Up to this point the perspective is more or less analytical, the focus being on the problems that Anglo-American philosophy has shed light on. The more important contributions of hermeneutics and the theory of interpretation take up about a quarter of the book. When treating the role of hermeneutics in theology, especially in the final two chapters, a general theory is formulated concerning religious language in the light of what has been studied previously.

Francisco Conesa is a diocesan priest and doctor of philosophy, humanities and theology. He is a member of the Sociedad Española de Ciencias de las Religiones and a professor at the faculty of theology at the University of Navarra and at the seminary of Orihuela-Alicante.

Jaime Nubiola is a doctor of philosophy and humanities an a professor of philosophy at the University of Navarra. He is also director of The Peirce Studies Group (Grupo de Estudios Peirceanos) and has organised several seminars dealing with the figure of Ch. S. Peirce, on which subject he is an authority.

On interest to philologists, philosophers and students and teachers of theology.

Abstract tomado de Editorial Herder