Racjonalistyczna perspektywa językowa. Szkice z nowożytnej filozofii języka

Abstract

The collected wark reflects the author's 20 years of research on the subject of modern philosophy of language. The select texts were inspired by studies on literature concerning the XVIIth century reflection on language, which are shaped in the rationalistic tradition. The central actors of the rationalistic tradition are Descartes and Leibniz. Notwithstanding the fact that Descartes never dealt with the problem of language, his theary of the mind has become a tool for the XVIIth century philosophers who research on problems related to language. This collection of research being The Port-Royal Grammar, is one of the milestones of studies on language. However, this author argues that is not Descartes, but G.W. Leibniz who built the foundation the modern philosophy of language. In support of this author's contentions, she presents vast research conducted by Leibniz, inclusive of his studies on genealogy of languages, as well as Leibniz's entire theory on the language and mind. In the book, the author attempts to strike balance between the achievements of the school of Decartes and select problems pertaining to Leibniz's philosophy of language. The book starts off with the Platonian language perspective essay, which presents the general scope of all problems encompassed in the book. The essay is aIso a point of departure to a more detailed analysis in the following sketches, which includes, but is not limited to the problems of the nature of the language, its origin and role in the cognitive process. Although the sketches are separate studies, it is relatable and can be compared to the problems captured in the title of the book. The author also attaches articles based on modern research, for which the rational tradition may provide a necessary philosophical background. The author purposefully in each text avoids using the term 'anticipation', and draws attention only to the unity of thoughts and ideas in different systems of knowledge.