Modernism and the Language of Philosophy Modernism can be characterised by the acute attention it gives to language, to its potential and its limitations. Philosophers, artists and literary critics who worked in the first third of the twentieth century, on the one hand emphasised language’s creative potential, but on the other, its impotence in conveying what was aimed at. In particular, modernists shared the belief that philosophical language was at a loss; that the kind of truth sub specie aeterni that was sought by philosophers is either meaningless or is more appropriately expressed by the arts– especially by literature and poetry. Modernism and the Language of Philosophy addresses the challenge this belief posed to philosophy, arguing that the modernist assumption rests upon a host of unacknowledged, repressed or denied dogmas or tacit images. Anat Matar begins by investigating the ideas that bring out this crisis in philo- sophical language, through examining the relevant views of the early Wittgenstein, Carnap and Artaud. The book goes on to look at the roots of the modernist crisis, focusing on Frege and Husserl’s innovative ideas and analysing the inner tensions in this pre-modern era. A contemporary solution is explored drawing on the work of Michael Dummett and Jacques Derrida. These two philosophers drive the narrative of Modernism and the Language of Philosophy and serve as lenses through which both past and present day philosophers are looked at. Through the perspectives of Dummett and Derrida a dialogue is formed between the two philosophical tradi- tions of the twentieth century–analytic and continental– and Matar shows that the dynamics of thought about language, philosophy and philosophical language in these traditions cannot be detached from one another. Anat Mataris a senior lecturer at Tel-Aviv University, Israel. Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Philosophy 1The Story of Analytic Philosophy 12 From Kant to Davidson Plot and Heroes The Idea of the Transcendental in Twentieth- Edited by Anat Biletzki and Anat Matar Century Philosophy Edited by Jeff Malpas 2Donald Davidson Truth, Meaning and Knowledge 13 Collingwood and the Metaphysics of Edited by Urszula M. Zeglén Experience AReinterpretation 3Philosophy and Ordinary Language Giuseppina D’Oro The Bent and Genius of Our Tongue Oswald Hanfling 14 The Logic of Liberal Rights AStudy in the Formal Analysis of Legal 4The Subject in Question Discourse Sartre’s Critique of Husserl in The Eric Heinze Transcendence of the Ego Stephen Priest 15 Real Metaphysics Edited by Hallvard Lillehammer and Gonzalo 5Aesthetic Order Rodriguez-Pereyra APhilosophy of Order, Beauty and Art 16 Philosophy After Postmodernism Ruth Lorland Civilized Values and the Scope of Knowledge 6Naturalism Paul Crowther ACritical Analysis 17 Phenomenology and Imagination in Edited by William Lane Craig and J. P. Husserl and Heidegger Moreland Brian Elliott 7Grammar in Early Twentieth-Century 18 Laws in Nature Philosophy Stephen Mumford RichardGaskin 19 Trust and Toleration 8Rules, Magic and Instrumental Reason Richard H. Dees ACritical Interpretation of Peter Winch’s Philosophy of the Social Sciences 20 The Metaphysics of Perception Berel Dov Lerner Wilfrid Sellars, Critical Realism and the Nature of Experience 9Gaston Bachelard Paul Coates Critic of Science and the Imagination Cristina Chimisso 21 Wittgenstein, Austrian Economics, and the Logic of Action 10 Hilary Putnam Praxeological Investigations Pragmatism and Realism Roderick T. Long Edited by James Conant and Urszula Zeglén 22 Ineffability and Philosophy 11 Karl Jaspers Politics and Metaphysics André Kukla Chris Thornhill 23 Cognitive Metaphor and Continental 27 Analytic Philosophy Without Philosophy Naturalism Clive Cazeaux Edited by A. Corradini, S. Galvan and E. J. Lowe 24 Wittgenstein and Levinas Ethical and Religious Thought 28Modernism and the Language Bob Plant of Philosophy Anat Matar 25 Philosophy of Time Time before Times Roger McClure 26 The Russellian Origins of Analytic Philosophy Bertrand Russell and the Unity of the Proposition Graham Stevens Modernism and the Language of Philosophy Anat Matar First published 2006 by Routledge 2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group ©2006 Anat Matar All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Acatalog record for this book has been requested ISBN10: 0-415-35379-3 ISBN13: 978-0-415-35379-3 Taylor & Francis Group is the Academic Division of T&F Informa plc. For Doron For philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday. (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations,§38) “Routine things can be deadly, Vern, carried by extremes. I have a friend who says that’s why people take vacations. Not to relax or find excitement or see new places. Toescape the death that exists in routine things.’’ “What is he, a Jew?’’ “What’s that got to do with it?” (Don Dellilo,White Noise, 248)