Philosophy

“Of all human affairs, communication is the most wonderful”, wrote John Dewey. It is a genuine wonder, he thought, that we can reveal things to one another, examine natural events together, talk about things that do not exist, and transcend our local and temporal contexts. These feats (along with many others) are made possible by language, marks and sounds that carry meaning. What is language? What is the nature of linguistic meaning? And how do words hook up to reality in the first place?