...philosophical questions. Understanding that the highest authority on these questions at the time was Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein impulsively traveled to Cambridge in 1911 and requested that Russell take him on as a student. Russell was hesitant at first but was soon impressed by Wittgenstein’s intelligence. Wittgenstein was brought into philosophy by Bertrand Russell, who was one of the founders of the analytic movement in philosophy. In the Investigations, Wittgenstein is concerned primarily with the very impulse to think philosophically more than he is with any particular philosophical views. Nevertheless, we find in the Investigations a preoccupation with language, and we can see the enduring influence of Frege and Russell in Wittgenstein’s conviction that a proper understanding of language will expose the hidden flaws in philosophical reasoning. Wittgenstein takes the example of game, showing that there is no rigid definition that includes everything we consider a game and excludes everything we do not consider a game, but we nevertheless have no difficulty in using the word game correctly. As far as Wittgenstein is concerned, ordinary language is perfectly adequate as it is. His aim is not to show the underlying...
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...contribution to philosophy is known as pragmatism or, sometimes, American pragmatism. Pragmatism is the philosophy where practical consequences and real effects are vital components of meaning and truth. Pragmatists rejected the idea that there is such a thing as fixed, absolute truth. Instead, they held that truth is relative to a time and place and purpose and is thus ever changing in light of new data. philosophical analysis resolves complex propositions or concepts into simpler ones. An elementary example is the proposition square circles are nonexistent things might be resolved by analysis into the simpler proposition no squares are circular. Pragmatism is an American theoretical movement that was developed by Charles Sanders Peirce in the 1870s. Pragmatism argues that the truth and meaning of an idea is directly related to its practical outcome. Analytic philosophy was developed by philosophers Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore in the early 1900s and received widespread attention in English-speaking countries during the 20th century. Analytic philosophy emphasizes the use of logical argument, language analysis and scientific methods in approaching ideas. Pragmatism and analytic philosophy are uniquely American movements in that they drastically differ from the philosophy found in Europe during the same period. Pragmatism and analytic philosophy are centered on a scientific approach to argument and analysis, whereas 19th and 20th century European philosophy, called continental...
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...An Exegesis of Russell and Frege When people tell people that I’m philosophy major they usually ask two questions: 1. Why would you ever want to study philosophy? and 2. What will you ever to do with a philosophy degree? The way these questions are frame usually come across as a straw-man argument connoting to such a pursuit is a fruitless endeavor. Despite societal preconceived notions of philosopher they fail to see major contributions that they have given society from governments, ethics, and technology. Most people are not aware that without the advancement that were made in the philosophy of language, we wouldn't have the knowledge to build computers. Perhaps computers could be attributed as the major contributors to the advancements that we have seen in our society. Computers have infinitely impacted the way that we approach the world, its impacted the food we eat, security (for better and worse), scholarly pursuits, social networking, etc. its hard to imagine a world that doesn't have computers; without computers we wouldn't have all the inventions and services that have come about because of them. It was the work of four philosophers / logicians: Gottfried Leibniz, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, and Alan Turning. Leibniz invented the binary number system which allows all number to be expressed in terms of 0's and 1's. By expressing the numbers as 0's and 1's all you need is a register which has only has to process two options: on and off. But programming...
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...Reaction Paper #1 Cryptic is defined as having a hidden meaning, and as I have quickly learned, philosophy is a very mystifying subject and is open to a wide variety of interpretation. Due to this obscurity, each person will have a different view on philosophy and will likely have changing opinions and views as they continue on their path. Heidegger describes this path as one of responding to life. More specifically, “responding to the voice of Logos which he defines as the Being of all beings, One, One which is all, Life.” As previously stated, this is a very cryptic definition that takes much deeper thought than simply reading off the page. Despite being cryptic, this vague definition gives a strong guideline to the basic idea of philosophy while still giving the reader an opportunity to interpret the definition in their own way. This definition shines light on both the basic idea of philosophy while also showing that everyone will interpret philosophy in their own way. By saying that philosophy is the One which is all, it shows that each individual person makes up a greater being which is Life. Each individual person provides their own interpretation based on their own lifestyle and past. Therefore, philosophy is the sum of all lives that can only be defined with the sum of everybody’s views and opinions. With this is mind, philosophy will be ever changing as people grow older and more people are brought into the world. What is most important about this definition...
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...people actually say and do in particular everyday circumstances. People talk about the world, about their work, about others and their relations with them. And in talking, they do things. That was Austin’s (1962) revolutionary insight into an aspect of language that had not been fully recognized: the pragmatic function of language, what language does to make social life possible. This turn to language, or to discourse, has had the effect of breaking down barriers between different social sciences concerned with the analysis of everyday social life. 1.2. Definitions of discourse Discourse analysis is widely recongnised as one of the most vast and least defined areas of linguistics. One reason for this is that the understanding of discourse is based on scholarship from a number of academic disciplines that are quite different from one another, such as, the philosophy of language, pragmatics, sociolinguistics. In a very general sense, two definitions are prevalent in the field, which underlie two different assumptions about the general nature of language and the goals of linguistics: the so-called ‘structuralist’ or ‘formalist’ approach, and the so-called ‘functional’ approach. The former defines discourse analysis as ‘language above the level of...
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...Definition Essay: Writing Methods The general purpose of a definition essay is to clearly and concisely explain a word, term or concept. This purpose can take on several avenues, such as to deepen the meaning of a term, to broaden the meaning by redirecting the obvious and present understanding to another explanation, or to entertain the reader. An extended definition of a term takes on a much more deep and thorough goal. An extended definition intends to ‘extend’ your knowledge or understanding of a term. The use of examples, stories, anecdotes and experiences is usually used to accomplish this, as well as giving comprehensive information about the term such as its noun, verb, adjective, and adverb meanings, and the origin of the word. Needless to say, much research goes into writing this type of essay. Methods of definition include Distinction, Examining, Analysis, and Etymology. • Distinction: This method explains not only what the term or phrase is, but compares it to other related terms and clearly explains what it is not. Bringing out the definition in this manner helps the reader to more clearly understand exactly the point being made. An example of the distinction method would be a coupon. A coupon is a paper or an online code that offers the consumer a discount if they purchase a particular item. In contrast, a sales premium is a bonus item given to the consumer when they purchase something else, such as a free trial bottle of shampoo when a large bottle of...
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...Philosophy Critically assess the claim that all religious language is meaningless. (35) Religious language has been argued about by many philosophers with regards to whether or not the ways in which we speak about religion are meaningful. This issue of religious language is concerned with the methods by which man talks about God in conjunction with theist or atheist ideologies. For some, religious language is meaningful and full of purpose while others see it to being incomprehensible and pointless. If we are to take the logical positivist approach then we would view all religious language as meaningless. For logical positivists the entire discipline of philosophy was centred on one task, which was to clarify the meaning of concepts and ideas. In turn, this led them to look at statements and inquire just what the “meaning” of them was, and what sort of statements really did have any “meaning.” A group of philosophers that known as the Vienna circle took a univocal approach to language, that is to say, that we mean the same thing when we talk about God and man. The logical positivists formulated the verification principle which saw assertions which are only verifiable through observation or experience, can be deemed meaningful. In this case, other assertions are either analytic or meaningless utterances. This approach was built on the work of both John Locke and David Hume, who argued that all philosophical matters must be approached with a strict empirical system. Thus, according...
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...CHUA, John Moses A. | PHLO 195 – T | Philosophy of Language | UPLB On Denoting the Use ‘The King of France is bald.’ This proposition had been very famous and a very good example for describing theories if we are to discern on how we can or should recognize if a proposition consisting a non-existent subject be true or false, or how meaningful these kinds may be. This paper should aim to defend Russell’s On Denotation and Descriptions against Strawson’s On Referring. This should go through on how Strawson may have failed to prove that Russell’s theory of denoting and theory of descriptions is incorrect and hence should be abandoned. But first, what is Russell’s theory of descriptions? In this theory, the instance that a concept is used in a proposition as such it would have description was classified into two types; the definite and the indefinite descriptions. Definite descriptions are concepts used in a proposition that has certain meaning or certain denotation as it was used in the sentence. One example would be: The shape square has four sides. Here, the square is regarded as belonging to the set shape and thus it is definite that the square that is a shape has four sides–for it really is. Though, tapping much into definite descriptions will not be of any use because what became controversial, at least for Strawson, was Russell’s recognizing of the indefinite descriptions. So what are these indefinite descriptions? This kind of description has descriptions...
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...certain objects, which proper names denote. His theory must be seen in the context of a denotational theory of meaning. The denotational theory characterizes the meaning of an expression in terms of the notion’s reference and truth. Russell believes that in order for language to mean something, we must look to our direct reference to the world. Russell thinks that phrases that denote are incomplete symbols and not names. The denoting phrase has no meaning on its own, and when added to a logical sentence is given meaning. Regarding the sentence “The present king of Germany is bald”, Bertrand Russell would paraphrase this sentence into three different sentences including “At least one person is presently King of Germany”, “at most one person is presently King of Germany”, and whoever is presently King of Germany is bald”. He explains that since nobody kings Germany at present, the first of the three paraphrased sentences are false. Therefore, the original sentence should be false (Lycan 15-16). Strawson claims that when we utter sentences like “The present king of Germany is bald”, we fail to say anything that is true or false because these statements lack determinate truth-values. This goes against Russell’s philosophy, where a false truth-value can be assigned to this sentence. Since the statement “the present king of Germany is bald” entails that there is a present king of Germany, and this is false, Russell would say that it is a false statement. Strawson claims that Russell...
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... Examples include sexual come-ons, veiled threats, polite requests, and concealed bribes. We propose a three-part theory of indirect speech, based on the idea that human communication involves a mixture of cooperation and conflict. First, indirect requests allow for plausible deniability, in which a cooperative listener can accept the request, but an uncooperative one cannot react adversarially to it. This intuition is supported by a game-theoretic model that predicts the costs and benefits to a speaker of direct and indirect requests. Second, language has two functions: to convey information and to negotiate the type of relationship holding between speaker and hearer (in particular, dominance, communality, or reciprocity). The emotional costs of a mismatch in the assumed relationship type can create a need for plausible deniability and, thereby, select for indirectness even when there are no tangible costs. Third, people perceive language as a digital medium, which allows a sentence to generate common knowledge, to propagate a message with high fidelity, and to serve as a reference point in coordination games. This feature makes an indirect request qualitatively different from a direct one even when the speaker and listener can infer each other’s intentions with high confidence. eople often don’t blurt out what they mean in so many words...
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...learning about roles and responsibilities and reflects choosing to identify with other members of society. Identity refers to who people feel that they are as individuals (“who I am”) and as members of groups (“who we are”). It also includes their identities in the eyes of others (for example, as they are commonly represented in the media McMillan & Chavis (1986) define sense of community as "a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through their commitment to be together. The following are how sense of belonging helps us to understand traditional societies in Africa; rite of passage, dressing, festival, symbols and language. First, rite of passage refers to...
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...stated that philosophy gives does not give particular answers as for example math gives. In the essay it is stated that in order to understand philosophy, people should free their mind from the prejudices of what are wrongly called ‘practical’ men (Bertrand Russell). From my point of view in this world not many things could be defined as good or bad. Good or bad things are defined by society and put limitations of people’s view. So basically, people are afraid very often to do something because of the judgment from the society. Philosophy calls to get rid of these barriers put by society. That is why I think that philosophy is essential for living good life. In Bertrand Russell’s essay is stated that “man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind” (Bertrand Russell). I fully agree with this statement. A good example would be taking risk by changing job. For example, you have a good job, but you were offered a new one, with better conditions, better salary and etc. However the person can be so afraid of changing something in his life or judgment of other people, that he will refuse this opportunity. Philosophy can help us to enrich our intellectual imagination and broaden our worldview. Philosophy views problems from different perspective and not only from one. That is why I think that philosophy is essential...
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...“De dicto” is a term which means “ of the word” where “de re” is a term which means “of the thing”. We use these two distinctions to express ourselves in a more intentionally accurate way. For example, Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker’s love interest, believes that Spider Man can crawl on walls. Mary Jane believes the statement is true “de re” because Spider Man can crawl on walls and “de dicto” because Mary Jane believes those words are true. However, Peter Parker is Spider Man which means that the names “Spider Man” and “Peter Parker” pick out the same one person or thing. With that, I can restate the proposition as Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker’s love interest, believes that Peter Parker can crawl on walls. However now Mary Jane believes this statement is false “de dicto” and true “de re”. It is false “de dicto” because Mary Jane does not know the words to be true; she is not aware that Peter Parker and Spider Man are the same one person or thing. Nevertheless the restated proposition is true “de re” because Spider Man and Peter Parker are the same one person and since Spider Man can crawl on walls it must be true that Peter Parker can crawl on walls. Other terms that we use to clearly state our intention are rigid designators, both temporal and modal. They are terms designed to refer, denote or pick out the same thing in all possible worlds. It only refers to that thing in worlds where it exists and does not refer to anything else in worlds where it does not exist. For example...
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...mentioned in one way or another on this study guide. If it’s not in the study guide, it will not be on the test. BE ABLE TO DEFINE AND RECOGNIZE EXAMPLES OF THESE TERMS: Source Message Channel Receiver Feedback Encoding Decoding “Multicoders” Verbal codes Nonverbal codes Noise Selective exposure Selective attention Selective perception Selective retention (memory) Denotative meaning Connotative meaning Symbol Referent Semiosis Sapir-Whorf hypothesis mneumonics as memory aids “Wysiati” Linguistic determinism Fallible memory Transactive memory Transactive encoding Transactive retrieval Contested memory System 1 vs. System 2 Semantic differential Halo effect Priming Framing Language Paraphrasing Dating (language) Indexing (language) BE ABLE TO RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING ITEMS: 1. According to the opening lecture, what is main thing that the study of communication about? 2. In the Floyd study discussed the first day, how did kissing their romantic partners more often affect research subjects? 3. According to the lecture on models of communication, where can we find meanings? 4. According to Dr. Parks, what is the single most important communication skill? 5. How can the channel of communication influence our...
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...Week 3 (25 August) Tutorial: How does your life define “I”? Reflecting on my life or whatever I have been through. I don’t think I have much of a life but I am contented. So here goes... I sat down for a talk with an insurance agent to do a short survey but in actual fact we both knew that the reason behind the survey was to try to convince me to buy an insurance policy from him. Halfway through the survey, he ask whether I had any financial goals that I hope to achieve and he was quite shocked to hear that I don’t have any financial goals in life. I was also shocked by the fact that he seemed so shocked over my answer. Are having financial goals a necessity in life? My logic is that having financial goals are not really that important if I have the virtue to save. As long as I save prudently, I can achieve any financial goals that I want, isn’t it? My logic applies in my academic life too. During secondary school, teachers and friends would ask whether I would choose to go to college or to polytechnic after my ‘O’ levels. My answer would always be ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I haven’t thought of it’. Why should I give a thought on where I should go after my ‘O’ levels? As long as I do well in my ‘O’ levels, I would have the luxury of pondering that question and seeking out the many options that will be open to me if my results are good so shouldn’t I strive to study hard first and get the best results? Definition of me: l realise I think and interpret things differently from...
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