Language and Illumination

Although all the essays which make up this volume can be read as independent studies - and were in fact originally written as such - it is my hope that the reader will see that a unitary thread runs through them and that together they tell a story of their own. Written originally in response to certain views and doctrines of linguistic philosophy, the point which I have tried to argue in them is that although linguistic philosophy's impact upon our understanding and conception of philosophy has been profound, its contribution to our understanding of the history of philosophy, including its own history, has unfortunately all too often been disappointing, superficial and misguided. While this seems rather remarkable, especially since the tool which it has fashioned is obviously not without its uses even here, in the light of its negative and restrictive conception of language the results achieved are not after all perhaps surprising or unexpected.