The Best Language Philosophy Books 2024

1. Wittgenstein

9783868380835

Wittgenstein

2. The Psychoanalysis of Fire (Paperback)

[Bachelard] is neither a self-confessed and tortured atheist like Satre, nor, like Chardin, a heretic combining a belief in God with a proficiency in modern science. But, within the French context, he is almost as important as they are because he has a pseudo-religious force, without taking a stand on religion. To define him as briefly as possible - he is a philosopher, with a professional training in the sciences, who devoted most of the second phase of his career to promoting that aspect of human nature which often seems most inimical to science: the poetic imagination ... - J.G. Weightman, The New York Times Review of Books

"[Bachelard] is neither a self-confessed and tortured atheist like Satre, nor, like Chardin, a heretic combining a belief in God with a proficiency in modern science. But, within the French context, he is almost as important as they are because he has a pseudo-religious force, without taking a stand on religion. To define him as briefly as possible – he is a philosopher, with a professional training in the sciences, who devoted most of the second phase of his career to promoting that aspect of human nature which often seems most inimical to science: the poetic imagination ..." – J.G. Weightman, The New York Times Review of Books

3. A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. In a series of essays that explore the notion of what brings significance to our existences, clarifying why we have this longing beyond the present moment and an insatiable dissatisfaction with where we are, scholar Frank Martela tackles the subject of finding meaning in life. With beautiful decorative elements and an engaging design, the book approaches its subject in a readily digestible form. It grapples with some of life's most pressing questions, like "Is happiness a worthy goal?" and "What is the foundation for meaning in a secular society?" and "Is life an existential void?" yet Martela answers these questions and more in a relaxed, conversational tone and with a wry sense of humor, placing some of life's greatest philosophical concerns and quandaries into a modern-day context. Martela quickly and concisely gets to the heart of the matter: your place in the world and how to find meaning in life as countless thinkers and philosophers have done before, yet the emphasis here is on what we do with the life we have and how we can make it more meaningful. Part prescriptive and part armchair philosophy book, A Wonderful Life is accessible to everyone, from the well-read scholar to the apprentice as well as anyone curious about how to extract the greatest meaning and sense of purpose from their existence.

A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence, Used [Hardcover]

4. Argumentation: Critical Thinking in Action: 2nd Ed., Used [Paperback]

Argumentation: Critical Thinking in Action, 2nd ed., explores a wide variety of issues and concepts connected to making arguments, responding to the arguments of others, and using good critical thinking skills to analyze persuasive communication. Key topics include the nature of claims, evidence, and reasoning; common fallacies in reasoning; traits associated with good critical thinking; how language is used strategically in argument; ways to organize an argumentative case; how to refute an opposing argument or case; cultural dimensions of argument; and ways to make a better impression either orally or in writing.

Argumentation: Critical Thinking in Action: 2nd Ed., Used [Paperback]

5. On the Pragmatics of Social Interaction : Preliminary Studies in the Theory of Communicative Action, Used [Hardcover]

In 1971 Habermas delivered the Gauss Lectures at Princeton University. These pivotal lectures, entitled "Reflections on the Linguistic Foundation of Sociology," anticipate The Theory of Communicative Action and offer an excellent introduction to it. They show why Habermas considers the linguistic turn in social philosophy to be necessary and contain the first formulation of formal pragmatics, including an important discussion of truth. In these lectures and two additional essays, Habermas outlines an intersubjective approach to social theory that takes the concepts of meaning and communication to be central. In doing so, he situates his project relative to other influential accounts of how meaning is constituted, in particular those of Edmund Husserl, Wilfrid Sellars, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He examines the nature of social interaction and its connection to communication, developing a linguistic conception of convention and intentionality. He also offers an account of social and individual pathologies using the concept of systematically distorted communication. Taken together, these analyses contribute significantly to current debates in the philosophy of action and language.

On the Pragmatics of Social Interaction : Preliminary Studies in the Theory of Communicative Action, Used [Hardcover]

6. Socrates and the Sophists : Plato's Protagoras, Euthydemus, Hippias and Cratylus, Used [Paperback]

This is an English translation of four of Plato's dialogue (Protagoras, Euthydemus, Hippias Major, and Cratylus) that explores the topic of sophistry and philosophy, a key concept at the source of Western thought. Includes notes and an introductory essay. Focus Philosophical Library translations are close to and are non-interpretative of the original text, with the notes and a glossary intending to provide the reader with some sense of the terms and the concepts as they were understood by Plato's immediate audience.

Socrates and the Sophists : Plato's Protagoras, Euthydemus, Hippias and Cratylus, Used [Paperback]

7. Logic in Linguistics, Used [Paperback]

An elementary introduction to formal logic, particularly intended for linguists and others interested in languages. Concepts and theories developed within formal logic for the study of artificial languages have for some time been fruitfully applied to the study of natural languages and some knowledge of them is necessary for students of linguists (especially semantics). With this need in mind the authors offer a clear, succinct and basic introduction to set theory, inference, propositional and predicate logic, deduction, modal and intensional logic, and various concomitant extensions of these. There is a discussion too of the relation between linguistics and logical analysis and between logic and natural language. The authors see increasing scope for co-operation between logicians and linguistics in studying the structure of language, and it is the overall aim of the book to promote this co-operation.

Logic in Linguistics, Used [Paperback]

8. Wittgenstein Flies a Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. The philosophy of language and experimental research in aeronautics made great leaps at about the same time in the early twentieth century. Strange as it may sound, this was no coincidence. Sterrett explains what Wittgenstein s glimpse of a solution to the problem of language in 1914 had to do with experimental models, which had been so crucial to the Wright brothers solving the problem of flight. On the eve of the First World War in Europe, Wittgenstein left aeronautical research to study philosophy. He was deeply dissatisfied with Bertrand Russell s solution to the paradoxes of logic, the theory of types. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, a physicist trying to improve U.S. aeronautical research capability pondered how the logic of empirical equations held the key to identifying physically similar situations, which in turn would explain the success of the Wright brothers airplane built from cardboard cartons and bicycle parts. His conclusion held an answer to Wittgenstein s problems about the logic of propositions.

Wittgenstein Flies a Kite : A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World, Used [Hardcover]

9. Argumentation: Critical Thinking in Action, Used [Hardcover]

Argumentation: Critical Thinking in Action, 2nd ed., explores a wide variety of issues and concepts connected to making arguments, responding to the arguments of others, and using good critical thinking skills to analyze persuasive communication. Key topics include the nature of claims, evidence, and reasoning; common fallacies in reasoning; traits associated with good critical thinking; how language is used strategically in argument; ways to organize an argumentative case; how to refute an opposing argument or case; cultural dimensions of argument; and ways to make a better impression either orally or in writing.

Argumentation: Critical Thinking in Action, Used [Hardcover]

10. Critical Thinking, Used [Paperback]

Critical Thinking by Kevin Possin

Critical Thinking, Used [Paperback]