Abstract
This chapter brings together Murdoch’s thoughts about language with other central aspects of her thought such as love, attention, perfectionism and morality. By making clear how Murdoch’s variety of linguistic philosophy differs from contemporary philosophy of language, this paper also shows that Murdoch’s philosophy contains the seeds for a fruitful form of philosophizing which brings the moral and aesthetic dimensions of language into view. “Taking the linguistic method seriously” means making clear the ways in which all concepts belong to a fabric that is changing on a personal level as well as an historical one. One of the things that Murdoch can help us see is that one problem with contemporary philosophy of language, is that it does not take the linguistic method seriously enough.
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Notes
- 1.
One of the most famous advocates of such a position is Timothy Williamson who argued for the primacy of ontology over philosophy of language, e.g. in Williamson (2004).
- 2.
- 3.
See e.g. Murdoch (1999d: 340).
- 4.
Notice here the stark contrast between Murdoch’s stance and Soames’—for Soames (who symptomatically also excludes both Austin and Wittgenstein from his overview of ‘philosophy of language’) meaning just is that which is not use. See Soames (2010: 172–3).
- 5.
It should also be noted that my understanding of the importance of thinking about ordinary usage for both Austin and Wittgenstein differs quite a bit from the views Murdoch ascribes to them.
- 6.
See also Murdoch (2001: 1).
- 7.
I am grateful to Nora Hämäläinen for many stimulating and informative discussions about these themes.
- 8.
The authors Murdoch has in mind here are Ryle, Hare, Russell and ‘the British Empiricists’—philosophers that she thinks of as the heirs of Hume, Kant and Mill.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
This publication was supported within the project of Operational Programme Research, Development and Education (OP VVV/OP RDE), “Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value”, registration No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000425, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic.
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Forsberg, N. (2018). ‘Taking the Linguistic Method Seriously’: On Iris Murdoch on Language and Linguistic Philosophy. In: Browning, G. (eds) Murdoch on Truth and Love. Philosophers in Depth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76216-6_6
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