Serving the Word

Serving the Word
Author: Vincent Crapanzano
Publisher:
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2001-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781565846739

"Serving the Word is an exciting and unprecedented look at literalism as a modern belief system, and analyzes its place in two seemingly contrasting fields; Christianity and law. In a work that moves from welathy Angelenos embracing starkly literal readings of the bible to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia insisting on the narrowest interpretation of legal texts. Makes a persuasive claim that the attraction to literal certainty that we associate with fringe fanaticism is in fact deeply embedded in American culture". -- Jacket.

Context-Dependence, Perspective and Relativity

Context-Dependence, Perspective and Relativity
Author: Francois Recanati
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2010-08-31
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110227770

This volume brings together original papers by linguists and philosophers on the role of context and perspective in language and thought. Several contributions are concerned with the contextualism/relativism debate, which has loomed large in recent philosophical discussions. In a substantial introduction, the editors survey the field and map out the relevant issues and positions.

Naked Guide To Life And Death

Naked Guide To Life And Death
Author: David Jon Peckinpaugh
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2002-08-18
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0595238602

How many ways are there to approach life? Who is trying to get you to buy into their view of the world? And what do they have to gain by convincing you they are "right?" In his book Naked Guide To Life And Death author David Jon Peckinpaugh seeks to unmask the attempts to convince us that things are a certain way, according to how the so-called "experts" see the world, often resulting in a far more narrow and limited perspective than one might initially suppose. His main thesis is that expertise of all kinds can result in our being seduced into knowing something as being so, when it, in fact, is not nearly so evident as the experts tend to make it seem. In throwing off the veil of religion and science, psychology and philosophy, consumerism and commercialism, Mr. Peckinpaugh performs an endearing service on behalf of us all, humanity. Suggesting that beyond the often contracted and tight spaces of expertise, hence, extremism, there are wide open spaces still inviting to those who dare to entertain the wisdom of not-knowing.

Meaning, Context and Methodology

Meaning, Context and Methodology
Author: Sarah-Jane Conrad
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2017-10-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1501504231

What methodological impact does Contextualism have on the philosophy of language? This collection sets out to provide some answers. The authors in this volume question three ultimately connected assumptions of the philosophy of language. The first assumption relates to the predominant status of referential semantics and its power to explain truth-conditional meaning. This assumption has come under attack by the context thesis and a number of papers pursue the question of whether this is justified. The second assumption gives priority to assertive sentences when considering language use. The context thesis changes our understanding of language use altogether; possible implications from this methodological shift are addressed in this volume. According to the third assumption, philosophical analysis amounts to nothing more than conceptual analysis. The context thesis risks undermining this project. Whether conceptual analysis can still be defended as a methodological tool is discussed in this volume.

Language

Language
Author: Daniel L. Everett
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2012-12-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0307473805

“The most important—and provocative—anthropological fieldwork ever undertaken.” —Tom Wolfe For years, the prevailing opinion among academics has been that language is embedded in our genes, existing as an innate and instinctual part of us. In this bold and provocative study, linguist Daniel Everett argues that, like other tools, language was invented by humans and can be reinvented or lost. He shows how the evolution of different language forms—that is, different grammar—reflects how language is influenced by human societies and experiences, and how it expresses their great variety. Combining anthropology, primatology, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, and his own pioneering research with the Amazonian Pirahã, and using insights from many different languages and cultures, Everett presents an unprecedented elucidation of this society-defined nature of language. In doing so, he also gives us a new understanding of how we think and who we are.

Islam and Human Rights in Practice

Islam and Human Rights in Practice
Author: Shahram Akbarzadeh
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2008-06-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134059264

This book looks at human rights and Islam through the perspective of reformists attempting to reconcile Western values with those of Muslim societies. It contains case studies from throughout the Islamic world.

The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics

The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics
Author: Keith Allan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 967
Release: 2012-01-12
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1139501895

Pragmatics is the study of human communication: the choices speakers make to express their intended meaning and the kinds of inferences that hearers draw from an utterance in the context of its use. This Handbook surveys pragmatics from different perspectives, presenting the main theories in pragmatic research, incorporating seminal research as well as cutting-edge solutions. It addresses questions of rational and empirical research methods, what counts as an adequate and successful pragmatic theory, and how to go about answering problems raised in pragmatic theory. In the fast-developing field of pragmatics, this Handbook fills the gap in the market for a one-stop resource to the wide scope of today's research and the intricacy of the many theoretical debates. It is an authoritative guide for graduate students and researchers with its focus on the areas and theories that will mark progress in pragmatic research in the future.