From Mind to Language: A Genealogy of John Locke's Linguistic Theory and the Challenges of Its Interpretation
Subject Areas : Epistemological researches
1 - گروه فلسفه پردیس فارابی دانشگاه تهران
Keywords: Locke, language, mind, pragmatism, structuralism, feminism,
Abstract :
The relationship between language and reality, the role of language in thought, and the structure and function of language have been topics of interest in philosophy since ancient times. These topics became central to the study of psychology and linguistics in the 17th and 18th centuries. This paper examines the interplay between language and mind in Locke's thought, focusing on traditional and modern interpretations of his views. By examining Locke's epistemological and linguistic ideas, especially in his books "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" and "Some Thoughts Concerning Education," we conclude that he proposes a theory of language as a system of codes. He considers words to be symbols of mental concepts and language to be a mirror of culture. Due to its complexity, subtlety, the diversity of philosophical and ideological presuppositions, historical developments in philosophy and linguistics, and ultimately the ambiguity in Locke's writing, this view has been interpreted in four different ways: traditional, structuralist, pragmatic, and feminist. This paper examines and critiques these four approaches, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It aims to present a philosophical explanation of Locke's linguistic theory, free from political, social, ideological, and feminist controversies.
Aristotle. (2016). The Rhetoric of Aristotle, translation by Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, Cambridge University press.
Atherton, M. (1996). Feminist interpretations of Locke. Pennsylvania State University Press.
Bordo, S. (1993). Unbearable weight: Feminism, Western culture, and the body. University of California Press.
Bally Charles & Sechehaye Albert (1959). Course in General Linguistics, (from notes on lectures given by historical-comparative linguist Ferdinand de Saussure at the University of Geneva between 1906 and 1911), trans by: Wade Baskin.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. MIT Press.
ــــــــــــ (1957). Syntactic Structures, Mouton press.
David, R. (2007). A history of philosophy of language. Blackwell Publishing.
Dewey John. (1029). Experience and Nature, Dover publications.
Distefano, C. (2023). Is the future female? HarperCollins.
Eckert, P. (2000). The language of gender. Cambridge University Press.
Eliot, L. (2009). The gendered brain: How our common wiring makes us different. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Harvard University Press.
Grosz, Elizabeth (1994). The Irigarayan Body, Columbia University Press.
Haack, S. (2000). Pragmatism and language. Cambridge University Press.
Holmes, J. (1995). Feminist interpretations of language. Routledge.
Hume D. (2014). A Treatise of Human Nature, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Irigaray, Luce (1985). Speculum of the Other Woman, translated by: Gillian Gill, Cornell University Press.
ــــــــــــ (1993). An Ethics of Sexual Difference, translated by: Sharon Willis, Cornell University Press.
ــــــــــــ . (1985). The Sexual Politics of Language, translated by: Carolyn Burke and Gillian Gill Cornell University Press.
ــــــــــــ. (1985). This Sex Which Is Not One, translated by: Catherine Porter & Carolyn Burke, Cornell University Press.
ــــــــــــ. (1993). The Language of the Mother, Translator: Catherine Porter, Routledge, (English translation).
Jaggar, A. M. (1983). Feminist politics and human nature. Rowman & Littlefield.
ــــــــــــ. (1997). Feminist ethics. Oxford University Press.
James, W. (1907). Pragmatism: A new name for some old ways of thinking. Harvard University Press.
Locke, J. (1690). An essay concerning human understanding. Oxford University Press.
ــــــــــــ.(1693). Some Thoughts Concerning Education, A. & J. Churchill publisher.
MacKinnon, C. A. (1989). Toward a feminist theory of the state. Harvard University Press.
Mill J. S. (2012). A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Cambridge University Press.
Morris, M. (2012). An introduction to the philosophy of language. Cambridge University Press.
Pinker, S. (1991). Locke and the Enlightenment: Ideas in the making: The influence of John Locke's theory of language on modern philosophy. By John Yolton. Blackwell Publishing.
ــــــــــــ. (1994). The language instinct: How the mind creates language. Morrow.
Plato. (1997). Complete Works, Edited by John M. Cooper, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis/Cambridge.
Putnam, H. (Ed.). (1995). Pragmatism: A reader. Hackett Publishing.
Richard. David. (2007). A History of Philosophy of Language, Blackwell Publishing.
Rorty, R. (1992). The pragmatic turn. Harvard University Press.
Saussure, F. de (1957). The structure of language. Translated by Wade Baskin. Edited by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye. University of Chicago Press.