- Philosophy is the study of the questions and answers that pertain to the fundamental issues of human life. The three most basic questions to ask and answer for any human being in any problematic situation are: How do you know? (Epistemology); What is the reality of the situation (Metaphysics); and, What is good or right to do in the situation (Ethics). We shall explore each of these provinces of philosophy noting how each bears on thinking about language.
- Epistemology: The study of how human beings succeed and fail in attempting to come to knowledge about themselves and their universe. The main and standard means of knowing for any individual are as follows:
a. Authoritarianism: Establishing belief on the basis of information obtained from other humans.
b. Rationalism: Establishing belief on the basis of what is logically consistent with what we already believe.
c. Empiricism: Establishing belief on the basis of what I can sense here and now (in the frame of prior beliefs).
d. Statistical Empiricism: Establishing: Establishing belief on the basis of arrayed masses of sensory evidence.
e. Pragmatism: Establishing belief in those ideas which cannot otherwise be verified but which are functional in fulfilling present desire.
f. Mysticism: Satisfaction of the hunger to know the truth by substitution of a feeling about things.
g. Revelation: Personal communication from a person who is not a human being to establish belief about the universe. - Scholarship: Construction of belief about things not present using documentary evidence available.
Principle constraints: (Current rules of the community of scholars.)
1) All extant relevant documents must be examined and accounted for.
2) Primary sources are to be given precedence over secondary sources.
3) All interpretation and construction must be done in a naturalistic frame. (No supernatural, no right or wrong, no secrets.)
4) All extant relevant documents must be examined and accounted for.
5) All theory construction must be rational (self-consistent). - Science: Construction of beliefs (facts, laws, theories and principles) about the present state and the nature of the universe and its parts on the basis of statistical empiricism and adduction of theory.
Principle constraints: (Current rules of the community of scientists.)
1) Every science must be based in empirical data. (No private or mystical evidence.
2) Laws and theories must account for the facts in a consistent manner.
3) All data must be accounted for in construction.
4) All observations must be repeatable (at least in principle); all experiments must be reproducible.
5) Construction must be done in a monistic, naturalistic frame.
6) Construction must assume uniformity of space, time, causes and rates.
Epistemological considerations relevant to linguistics:
1) Can a theory of language be built without allowing introspection?
2) Is the real test of a theory of language peer acceptance or pragmatic power? (Science or technology?)
3) Is there an intellectual test for truth? (There are intellectual tests for error.)
4) What is the relationship between concepts and words? Message and code? Meaning and assertion?
5) Is there such a thing as knowing what someone thinks? Knowing that we know such?
4. Metaphysics: The search for the ultimate reality of things, asking questions which cannot be decided on the basis of reason or empirical facts. It is necessary to have a metaphysics to think, but one can never prove that his answers are correct. The metaphysical stance of most persons is usually determined socially. Standard answers to metaphysical questions usually take one side of a polarity.
Important questions and their standard polarities:
a. Is the universe one or many systems? Monism vs. dualism (or pluralism).
b. Is the universe Matter or idea? Materialism vs. idealism.
c. Is there a supernatual? Naturalism vs. supernaturalism.
d. Does law govern the universe? Determinism vs. tychism.
e. Does a God exist? Theism vs. atheism. If one does, what kind of being is he/she/it?
f. Is man natural or supernatural? (Evolution or divine creation).
g. Is man an agent? Agency vs. mechanism.
h. Limited or infinite variety in the universe? Types or individuals only.
Metaphysical considerations relevant to linguistics:
1) Is there a unique human neural linguistic facilitator? If so, what are its limits?
2) Does language have a natural or supernatural origin?
3) Are humans agentive or mechanical in using language?
4) Are the universe and language determined or indeterminate, nomothetic or idiosyncratic?
5) What is the status of universals and particulars? Do names always refer to universals or not?
6) Is there a spiritual component to some or all communication?
5. Ethics: Consideration of what men should, could or ought to do to be wise. What is good for man and how is it to be obtained? Is good the same as right, and if not, how is it discerned and obtained?
Standard answers:
a. Cyrenaicism: The good is maximal physical pleasure guided by desire.
b. Platonism: The good is to know the truth guided by reason.
c. Aristotelianism: The good is the mean between excess and defect in those things appropriate to the nature of man, to be found through reason.
d. Stoicism: The good is to be unperturbed by pleasure or pain, to be achieved through reason in seeing that all things are rigidly predetermined.
e. Epicureanism: The good is a proper balance between higher pleasures (intellectual and social) and lower pleasures (physical), to be discovered by reason and experimentation.
f. Moral sense: The good is to do the will of God as found by following one’s conscience.
g. Kantianism: The good is a good will, to be achieved by doing that which everyone should do if in your situation, as discovered through reason.
h. Utilitarianism: The greatest sum of physical pleasure for the greatest number as found by reason and science.
6. Restored Gospel: Good is what each person wants, right is the will of God learned through personal revelation.
Ethical Considerations relevant to linguistics:
1) Is there a connection between morality and linguistic ability?
2) What is the lesson of the Tower of Babel?
3) What does it mean to bear false witness?
4) Is goodness/badness rightness/wrongness part of all communication?
5) Should language be stable?
6) Should language be regular?
7) Should there be a universal language?
8) Is every person entitled to hear the Restored Gospel in his own tongue? What is a tongue?
9) Should linguistics be prescriptive as well as descriptive? (Is it science or technology?)
10) Is there a divine language? Is it the same as the Adamic language? Is it conceptual only?