Bøker av Roy Harris

The task of the historian would be impossible without verbal resources for dating and describing past events. Historians from Herodotus onwards traditionally relied uncritically on their own native languages (including Greek, Latin and English) to provide all they needed. In so doing, they also took over a traditional Western view of the relationship between language, the world and the passage of time. This determined for them the rational limits of historical knowledge. Their 'histories' could not go beyond these limits without straying into the realms of myth or imagination. Their philosophy of history was circumscribed by their (often unstated) philosophy of language.This book is the first comprehensive attempt to trace the relationship between Western philosophy of history and Western philosophy of language. It spans the whole development of education from the ancient Greeks down to the present day. It examines the impact on history of modern movements, including structuralist and postmodern approaches, as well as the recent advent of television history.Features:*The first comprehensive attempt to relate Western philosophy of history to Western philosophy of language*The author is a leading authority on linguistics and the philosophy of language*The book is written in an accessible style for all levels of reader.

This book is the first major reassessment of the reception of Saussure's ideas throughout the twentieth century. That Saussure's work profoundly influenced developments in such diverse fields as linguistics, anthropology, psychology and literary studies is denied by no one. But what exactly Saussure's views were taken to be by his interpreters has not hitherto been subject to any comprehensive critical survey. How well were Saussure's ideas understood by those who took them up? Or how badly misunderstood? And why? The answers to these questions address central issues in the history of Western culture.Each chapter focuses on one particular interpreter of Saussure's work, but many others are mentioned in context for purposes of comparison, and attention is drawn to connections and disparities between their interpretations. Those whose interpretations are examined in detail include Bloomfield, Hjelmslev, Jakobson, Levi-Strauss, Chomsky, Barthes and Derrida.Features:* The author is acknowledged as an expert on Saussure's work* This is the first study of the reception of Saussure's ideas, and how well they were understood by those who took them up* The work of Saussure is a landmark in the history of linguistic thought

Pays close attention to the early work of the Royal Society and to the twentieth-century semantic crisis caused by attempting to integrate Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics. This lucidly written book will be of interest to all those engaged in linguistics, semiotics, philosophy of science and cultural studies.

The problem of definition has a long history and has engaged the minds of some of the most eminent thinkers in the Western tradition, from Plato and Aristotle onwards. This work focuses on two areas where difficulties arise in a particularly acute form: lexicography and the law.

Are contemporary art theorists and critics speaking a language that has lost its meaning? This book takes a linguistic approach to the key issues and shows that what have been considered problems of aesthetics and artistic justification often have their source in underlying linguistic assumptions.

By introducing the reader to the main issues and themes that have determined the development of the Western linguistic tradition, an evolution of linguistic thought quickly becomes apparent.

The "Key Issues" series makes available the contemporary responses that met important books on their first appearance. The notion that language was a divine gift to humanity was seriously questioned by Darwin's theory of evolution. This text contains various contributions to the controversy.

Roy Harris shows that the theory of writing adopted in modern linguistics is deeply flawed. Reversing the orthodox priorities, the author argues that writing is a far more powerful mode of linguistic communication than speech could ever be.

Reflects on the early nineteenth-century doctrine of 'art for art's sake'. Attacked by Proudhon and Nietzsche, but defended by Theophile Gautier and E M Forster, it influenced movements as diverse as futurism and Dada.

Examines the old debate about the relationship between rationality and literacy. This title challenges the received mainstream opinion that reason is an intrinsic property of the human mind, and argues that the whole Western conception of rational thought is a by-product of the way literacy developed in European cultures.