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Introduction
Get PDFThe philosophical reflection stemming from actual scientific practice has been proven to have the potential to inform ethical thinking and political practice with a more robust foundation than those not necessarily linked to scientific developments. This is not, of course, to argue for an alleged preeminence of science over speculative philosophical reflection, nor that scientific practices should remain untouched by science-informed philosophy. On the contrary, history and anthropology of science function as antidotes to similar unfounded views. Recent scientific and technological discoveries require a stronger role for philosophy in public and institutional discussions. Their practical consequences for humans and non-humans cannot be ignored
Linguistic Relativity And Its Relation To Analytic Philosophy
Get PDFThe history of so-called ‘linguistic relativity’ is an odd and multifaceted
one. After knowing alternate fortunes and being treated by different
academic branches, today there are some new ways of investigating the language-thought-reality
problem that (i) put into dialogue the latest trends in language-related
disciplines (ii) generate room for philosophical themes previously
overlooked, (iii) reassess the very idea of linguistic relativity, despite its popularized
versions which have circulated for decades and which have led an otherwise
fruitful debate to extremes. It is argued that a multidisciplinary approach is desirable
in order to broaden future research. In the last few years, the opportunity
to study this matter following a common trend in several disciplines has been
created. Language, and cognition too, are now conceived as intrinsically social
phenomena. It is argued that relativistic effects should be investigated in social
realms and that analytic philosophy could help with this task
Do Willows Really Weep? Cognition, its grammar, and the problem of pluralism: conceptual, linguistic and metascientific disagreements in recent science
Get PDFThis paper will serve two functions. First, as a foreword to the other essays that compose this monographic issue of the journal. It will also provide a criticaldiscussion on two major issues that emerged in the general. The first consists in seeing the philosophical outcomes of new developments in science through the lens of the language that is used to describe them. The second pertains to the metascientific level of the disagreement, as this new evidence challenges the established understanding of scientific practice and its philosophical foundations. The case of plant cognition will be examined in some detail to illustrate both issues.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
La problematica ricezione della relatività linguistica nel dibattito su lingua e rappresentazione sociale in Italia
Get PDFItaly has recently witnessed a heated debate about the proposal of modifying certain aspects of lexicon, morphology, and phonetics of the Italian language. These modifications were aimed at fostering «inclusion» of given subaltern social groups, namely women and, separately, queer or non-binary people. Many among both supporters and critics of these measures of linguistic inclusion mentioned linguistic relativity as a fundamental theoretical premise of the operation. In this paper I analyze how they did so. From the analysis of the most important mentions of linguistic relativity its general reception emerges as problematic, superficial or partial, whereas it has proven to be a rich and respectable multidisciplinary research field. Finally, I clarify several widespread misunderstandings about the genesis, scope and purpose of the study of linguistic relativit
Per una revisione del problema della relatività linguistica
Get PDFLa relatività linguistica è un problema sotto costante ridefinizione da un centinaio di anni. Negli ultimi trenta, si è assistito a un rinnovato interesse nel tema, soprattutto sul versante della ricerca empirica di stampo psicologico. Tuttavia, esistono ragioni per non essere soddisfatti dell'approccio del pur variegato mondo "Neo-Whorfiano". Le critiche provengono da più parti, ciononostante è possibile identificare un filo rosso di lamentele comune. In sintesi, il compromesso (che per l'era contemporanea si può far risalire a John A. Lucy) per cui gli effetti della lingua sul pensiero si possono coerentemente valutare soltanto in compiti in cui non c'è uso del linguaggio viene considerato troppo restrittivo e sminuente rispetto a quanto gli esseri umani fanno con il linguaggio. Le controproposte sono molteplici, dall'etnolinguistica e l'analisi dell'interazione, fino all'enattivismo in filosofia della mente. Paradossalmente, però, alcune di questi programmi alternativi che spesso si basano su una distinzione non così netta tra ciò che è pensiero, ciò che è linguistico e ciò che è azione, hanno l'effetto di dissolvere il problema della relatività linguistica per come lo abbiamo pensato finora. Pur abbracciando questo punto di vista, si vorrebbe tuttavia salvare l'intuizione che lingue diverse hanno effetti diversi sul nostro modo di vivere, mantenendo allo stesso tempo la trattabilità del problema. Nella tesi, sono anche approfondite diverse questioni definitorie rispetto al tema della relatività linguistica in generale, compreso - fra gli altri - il problema se la relatività linguistica sia da considerarsi un tipo di relativismo
Is Linguistic Relativity A Kind of Relativism?
No full textThis paper aims to shed light on the terminological and conceptual area around linguistic relativity (nowadays a mostly empirically conceived problem), namely the relations with relativism as a philosophical position. Throughout history and up to now there has been a degree of confusion in handling the terms ‘linguistic relativity’, ‘linguistic relativism’, ‘linguistic determinism’ and the like, all in a more or less conscious fashion. Here it is clarified that linguistic relativity, at least as construed by the recent Neo-Whorfian literature (but also in some important sense, from Whorf ’s own point of view as well) is not, by definition, the same as linguistic determinism, but neither is a form or relativism. On the other hand, relativism, maintains the recent philosophical literature, is a family of theses that share a number of common features even though a single defining core is not easily identifiable. While linguistic relativity does have some connections with some of those features, to make it collapse into an easily dismissible kind of relativism is a crucial misconception of the nature and scopes of such an idea, i.e., that different languages have a different bearing on speakers’ cognition and action
Il linguaggio come collante tra menti individuali e socialità umana
No full textThe pragmatist tradition in philosophy has left a sound legacy in many contemporary research fields. John Dewey’s continuist and emergentist approach to the nature-or-nurture problem in relation to the individual human mind has been regained lately in evolutionist psychology and related disciplines. For Dewey, language plays a fundamental role in creating and maintaining this continuity between the individual mind and the social and physical environment humans inhabit. The present article will focus on a few contemporary lines of research that identify language as the ‘glue’ that bonds each individual to one another and to society, with a decisive impact on the development of one’s own mind
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