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. |
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Page viii
... words science and language , these two questions would be : ' What does science require of language ? ' and ' What ... word science ' , as commonly used for the past hundred years or more , has been enlisted in the service of a way of ...
... words science and language , these two questions would be : ' What does science require of language ? ' and ' What ... word science ' , as commonly used for the past hundred years or more , has been enlisted in the service of a way of ...
Page xiii
... word science' (or one of its etymological forebears), and the other involves trying to detect the earliest manifestations of a certain 'idea' of science (the idea supposedly expressed by 'the word science' itself). Both fallacies are ...
... word science' (or one of its etymological forebears), and the other involves trying to detect the earliest manifestations of a certain 'idea' of science (the idea supposedly expressed by 'the word science' itself). Both fallacies are ...
Page xiv
... words come to be relied on ( often mistakenly ) as means by which to establish more or less permanent frameworks for our dealings with others . All the modern supercategories are the result of complex integrational processes over a ...
... words come to be relied on ( often mistakenly ) as means by which to establish more or less permanent frameworks for our dealings with others . All the modern supercategories are the result of complex integrational processes over a ...
Page xv
... word science ' itself . 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 ...
... word science ' itself . 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 ...
Page 2
... 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.
... 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.
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 |
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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