Incommensurability and Cross-Language Communication (Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Philosophy) - Hardcover

Wang, Xinli

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 075463034X ISBN 13: 9780754630340

Publisher: Routledge, 2007

Synopsis

A dominant epistemological assumption behind Western philosophy is that it is possible to locate some form of commonality between languages, traditions, or cultures - such as a common language or lexicon, or a common notion of rationality - which makes full linguistic communication between them always attainable. Xinli Wang argues that the thesis of incommensurability challenges this assumption by exploring why and how linguistic communication between two conceptually disparate languages, traditions, or cultures is often problematic and even unattainable. According to Wang's presuppositional interpretation of incommensurability, the real secret of incommensurability lies in the ontological set-ups of two competing presuppositional languages. This book provides many original contributions to the discussion of incommensurability and related issues in philosophy and offers valuable insights to scholars in other fields, such as anthropology, communication, linguistics, scientific education, and cultural studies.

About this title

About the Author

Xinli Wang is Professor of Philosophy at Juniata College, Pennsylvania, USA.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 075463034X
• ISBN 13: 9780754630340
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384