The Semantics of ScienceA&C Black, 2005 M04 15 - 240 pages The Semantics of Science proposes a radical new rethinking of science and scientific discourse. Roy Harris argues that supercategories such as science, art, religion and history are themselves verbal constructs, and thus language-dependent. Because each supercategory is constructed differently, it is necessary to pay attention to the linguistic process by which a discourse such as 'science' has developed. Through this view it is possible to observe that the function of the supercategory is to integrate what would otherwise be separate activities and enquiries, and the result of this integration is therefore a re-drawing of the intellectual world that society as a whole adopts. In the course of his study of The Semantics of Science Roy Harris looks at the history and development of scientific discourse to show through language that what is meant by science has changed since it was first theorised by the Greeks. Harris traces the semantic development of 'science' through the years of the Royal Society to the present day, moving on to an analysis of rhetoric, mathematics, common sense and finally the supercategory of semantics. This lucidly written yet radical new theory on the language of science will be fascinating reading for academics and students researching semantics, semiotics or applied linguistics. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 67
Page viii
... according to lexicographers , has a relatively short history : ' the word science ' has a much longer and more complicated one . Semantics , we are told , is an English version of the French sémantique , a term invented by the French ...
... according to lexicographers , has a relatively short history : ' the word science ' has a much longer and more complicated one . Semantics , we are told , is an English version of the French sémantique , a term invented by the French ...
Page xv
... According to this writer : ' Outside the English - speaking world nowadays , the science word does not have epistemological clout . ' The French and German triads that correspond to our plain English “ natural sciences , social sciences ...
... According to this writer : ' Outside the English - speaking world nowadays , the science word does not have epistemological clout . ' The French and German triads that correspond to our plain English “ natural sciences , social sciences ...
Page 2
... , originally propagated in antiquity, which I call the 'lan- guage myth'. It still flourishes today, not only in Laboratories and Libraries. According to this myth, language 'works' as follows. Words are 2 The Semantics of Science.
... , originally propagated in antiquity, which I call the 'lan- guage myth'. It still flourishes today, not only in Laboratories and Libraries. According to this myth, language 'works' as follows. Words are 2 The Semantics of Science.
Page 3
Roy Harris. According to this myth, language 'works' as follows. Words are items belong- ing to a conventionally agreed linguistic code, shared by all members of a linguistic community. This code allegedly functions as a system enabling ...
Roy Harris. According to this myth, language 'works' as follows. Words are items belong- ing to a conventionally agreed linguistic code, shared by all members of a linguistic community. This code allegedly functions as a system enabling ...
Page 5
... According to the counter-story, science hardly begins until later scholars stop taking everything Aristotle says as gospel. The trouble with Aristotle, Sir Peter Medawar tells us, was that he was too much of an Athenian gentleman to get ...
... According to the counter-story, science hardly begins until later scholars stop taking everything Aristotle says as gospel. The trouble with Aristotle, Sir Peter Medawar tells us, was that he was too much of an Athenian gentleman to get ...
Contents
1 | |
5 | |
25 | |
3 Semantics and the Royal Society | 47 |
4 Science in the kitchen | 64 |
5 The rhetoric of linguistic science | 83 |
6 Mathematics and the language of science | 106 |
7 Science and common sense | 129 |
8 Supercategory semantics | 152 |
9 Integrating science | 176 |
Appendix 1 Einstein on science and reality | 189 |
Appendix 2 Heisenberg on language | 202 |
References | 209 |
Index | 215 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
according already Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's assumptions basis Betty Bloomfield Bohr Boyle’s law Bridgman called Carnap claim classical physics communication concept copper correspondence counting defined Demiurge described discourse distinction Einstein everyday example existing experience explain fact fixed code fixed-code geography Greek Harré Heisenberg Heisenberg 1989 Holt-Jensen human idea inquiry integration integrationist kind knowledge Kuhn language of science language user linguistic logic material objects mathematics means measurement Medawar metaphysical modern names Nature Neogrammarian notion number-words observation ordinary language paradigm particular philosophy of language philosophy of science physics possible pre-scientific principles problem proposed psychocentric question reference relativity of simultaneity reocentric reocentric semantics rhetoric rhetoric of science Saussure scientific method scientists seems semantics of science sense signs simultaneity space spagyrists Sprat statement supercategory suppose symbols syntax Thales theory things tion trajectory truth understand verbal Vienna Circle Wilkins words