The Language Animal

The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity

Charles Taylor

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Hardback

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English

The Belknap Press
14 March 2016

Philosophy of language; Philosophy; Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge

"In seminal works ranging from Sources of the Self to A Secular Age, Charles Taylor has shown how we create possible ways of being, both as individuals and as a society. In his new book setting forth decades of thought, he demonstrates that language is at the center of this generative process.

For centuries, philosophers have been divided on the nature of language. Those in the rational empiricist tradition-Hobbes, Locke, Condillac, and their heirs-assert that language is a tool that human beings developed to encode and communicate information. In The Language Animal, Taylor explains that this view neglects the crucial role language plays in shaping the very thought it purports to express. Language does not merely describe; it constitutes meaning and fundamentally shapes human experience. The human linguistic capacity is not something we innately possess. We first learn language from others, and, inducted into the shared practice of speech, our individual selves emerge out of the conversation.

Taylor expands the thinking of the German Romantics Hamann, Herder, and Humboldt into a theory of linguistic holism. Language is intellectual, but it is also enacted in artistic portrayals, gestures, tones of voice, metaphors, and the shifts of emphasis and attitude that accompany speech. Human language recognizes no boundary between mind and body. In illuminating the full capacity of ""the language animal,"" Taylor sheds light on the very question of what it is to be a human being."

By: Charles Taylor
Imprint: The Belknap Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 33mm
Weight: 635g
ISBN: 9780674660205
ISBN 10: 067466020X
Pages: 360
Publication Date: 14 March 2016
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Undergraduate , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Charles Taylor is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University.

Reviews for The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity

Taylor is one of the handful of most important thinkers of our era. The line of thinking he develops in The Language Animal is basic to his whole work since Explanation of Behaviour. Many readers will grasp the importance of a constitutive view of language, and for them this will be a landmark book.--Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science