"To conclude: there are two well-known minor ways in which language has mattered to philosophy. On the one hand there is a belief that if only we produce good definitions, often marking out different senses of words that are confused in common speech, we will avoid the conceptual traps that ensnared our forefathers. On the other hand is a belief that if only we attend sufficiently closely to our mother tongue and make explicit the distinctions there implicit, we shall avoid the conceptual traps. One or the other of these curiously contrary beliefs may nowadays be most often thought of as an answer to the question Why does language matter to philosophy? Neither seems to me enough."
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Academics from CanadaPhilosophers from CanadaPeople from VancouverFellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Original Language: English
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Ian Hacking (1975), Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?, p. 7.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_Hacking
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Ian Hacking
Ian Hacking CC, FRSC, FBA (February 18, 1936 – May 10, 2023) was a Canadian philosopher and professor of philosophy at the , specializing in philosophy of science.
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