philosophy linguistics

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 119 pages. A book on linguistics by Noam Chomsky, written with the purpose of deepening 'our understanding of the nature of language and the mental processes and structures that underlie its use and acquisition'. Chomsky wished to shed light on these underlying structures of the human language, and subsequently whether one can infer the nature of an organism from its language. Cartesian linguistics refers to a form of linguistics developed during the time of RenE Descartes, a prominent 17th century philosopher whose ideas continue to influence modern philosophy. In Cartesian Linguistics, Chomsky traces the development of linguistic theory from Descartes to Wilhelm von Humboldt, that is, from the period of the Enlightenment directly up to Romanticism. The central doctrine of Cartesian linguistics maintains that the general features of grammatical structure are common to all languages and reflect certain fundamental properties of the mind. Clean copy.

Softcover. La Salle, Ill., Open Court, reprint, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 214 pages. Minor wear to edges of cover. Previous owner's inscription on front flyleaf. A bright and clean copy.

Hardcover. Columbia SC, University Of South Carolina Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 325 pages. Landmark study in 19th century rhetorical theory, significant contribution to Newman studies & the study of rhetoric;

Hardcover. NY, Thomas Y Crowell, 1st, 1975, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, two-color cloth covers, 465 pages. Brown spine with white lettering. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean. No dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gold lettering on spine, 272 pages. The nine essays compiled in this work deal with the nature of philosophical arguments and the degree to which they are linguistic; the possibility and status of private experience; the criteria of personal identity and the relation between mind and body; the interplay of the referential and descriptive functions of language; the criteria of truth; the interpretation of judgments of probability; the distinction between generalizations of law and generalizations of fact; and the status of judgments about the future and the question of free will and determinism. New theories are advanced and old theories are criticized. Bright, clean copy, lacks dust jacket.