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Language, Concepts, and Emotions in Charles Taylor’s The Language Animal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

CHRISTOPH DEMMERLING*
Affiliation:
Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena

Abstract

Human beings shape the landscapes of their individual, social, and political lives entangled in a web of language. Everything that human beings do, the way they act and think, is shaped by the use of language. Charles Taylor explores these anthropological dimensions of language. This article discusses three different aspects of Taylor’s language-oriented anthropology and confronts his considerations with three distinct questions concerning the relation between language and the lives of human beings. The first question is how Taylor’s constitutive view of language can be related to his criticism of the mediational view of language. Next, the relation between language and concepts is discussed. Finally, emotions are considered.

Les êtres humains tracent les contours de leur vie individuelle, sociale et politique dans un réseau de langage. L’utilisation de la langue préside à tout ce qu’ils font, à la manière dont ils agissent et pensent. Charles Taylor explore ces dimensions anthropologiques du langage. Cet article traite de trois différents aspects de cette anthropologie fondée sur le langage et met à l’épreuve les considérations de Taylor à l’aide de trois questions distinctes touchant à la relation entre le langage et la vie des êtres humains. Il s’agit d’abord de comprendre comment sa vision constitutive du langage peut être liée à sa critique de l’approche médiationnelle du langage. L’article aborde ensuite la relation entre le langage et les concepts et, enfin, la question des émotions.

Type
Special Issue: Charles Taylor’s The Language Animal
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2017 

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