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Philosophy of Language
In 1963 Vilém Flusser presented a series of lectures at the Brazilian Institute of Philosophy (IBF) in São Paulo concerning the philosophy of language. The resulting ten essays would eventually be published in 1965 in the annual magazine of the Brazilian Institute of Technology and Aeronautics (ITA), and published here for the first time in book form. Flusser prepared each lecture as a response to the dialogs that followed the preceding lecture, thereby expanding and explicating his philosophy of language in an intense dialogical process. Despite the fact that the other side of the dialogue was not recorded, it becomes clear to the reader that the resulting discussions and polemics generated by the lectures progressively and profoundly changed Flusser’s intended trajectory for the course. This kind of philosophy in fieri was in part the result of a group effort between all of those present, and subsequently synthesized by Flusser in every essay. As a result of this experience, Flusser adopted this dialogic method as an integral part of his future work.
- GenresLinguistics
142 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2016
1 person is currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Vilém Flusser
87 books161 followersVilém Flusser was a philosopher born in Czechoslovakia. He lived for a long period in Brazil and later in France, and his works are written in several different languages.
His early work was marked by discussion of the thought of Martin Heidegger, and by the influence of existentialism and phenomenology. Phenomenology would play a major role in the transition to the later phase of his work, in which he turned his attention to the philosophy of communication and of artistic production. He contributed to the dichotomy in history: the period of image worship, and period of text worship, with deviations consequently into idolatry and "textolatry".
Flusser was born in 1920 in Prague into a family of Jewish intellectuals. His father, Gustav Flusser, studied mathematics and physics (under Albert Einstein among others). Flusser attended German and Czech primary schools and later a German grammar school.
In 1938, Flusser started to study philosophy at the Juridical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague. In 1939, shortly after the Nazi occupation, Flusser emigrated to London to continue his studies for one term at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Vilém Flusser lost all of his family in the German concentration camps: his father died in Buchenwald in 1940; his grandparents, his mother and his sister were brought to Auschwitz and later to Theresienstadt where they were killed. The next year, he emigrated to Brazil, living both in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
In 1960 he started to collaborate with the Brazilian Institute for Philosophy (IBF) in São Paulo and published in the Revista Brasileira de Filosofia; by these means he seriously approached the Brazilian intellectual community. During that decade he published and taught at several schools in São Paulo, being Lecturer for Philosophy of Science at the Escola Politécnica of the University of São Paulo and Professor of Philosophy of Communication at the Escola Dramática and the Escola Superior de Cinema in São Paulo. He also participated actively in the arts, collaborating with the Bienal de São Paulo, among other cultural events.
Beginning in the 1950s he taught philosophy and functioned as a journalist, before publishing his first book Língua e realidade (Language and Reality) in 1963. In 1972 he decided to leave Brazil.
He lived in both Germany and the South of France. To the end of his life, he was quite active writing and giving lectures around media theory. He died in 1991 in a car accident, while visiting his native Prague to give a lecture.
His early work was marked by discussion of the thought of Martin Heidegger, and by the influence of existentialism and phenomenology. Phenomenology would play a major role in the transition to the later phase of his work, in which he turned his attention to the philosophy of communication and of artistic production. He contributed to the dichotomy in history: the period of image worship, and period of text worship, with deviations consequently into idolatry and "textolatry".
Flusser was born in 1920 in Prague into a family of Jewish intellectuals. His father, Gustav Flusser, studied mathematics and physics (under Albert Einstein among others). Flusser attended German and Czech primary schools and later a German grammar school.
In 1938, Flusser started to study philosophy at the Juridical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague. In 1939, shortly after the Nazi occupation, Flusser emigrated to London to continue his studies for one term at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Vilém Flusser lost all of his family in the German concentration camps: his father died in Buchenwald in 1940; his grandparents, his mother and his sister were brought to Auschwitz and later to Theresienstadt where they were killed. The next year, he emigrated to Brazil, living both in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
In 1960 he started to collaborate with the Brazilian Institute for Philosophy (IBF) in São Paulo and published in the Revista Brasileira de Filosofia; by these means he seriously approached the Brazilian intellectual community. During that decade he published and taught at several schools in São Paulo, being Lecturer for Philosophy of Science at the Escola Politécnica of the University of São Paulo and Professor of Philosophy of Communication at the Escola Dramática and the Escola Superior de Cinema in São Paulo. He also participated actively in the arts, collaborating with the Bienal de São Paulo, among other cultural events.
Beginning in the 1950s he taught philosophy and functioned as a journalist, before publishing his first book Língua e realidade (Language and Reality) in 1963. In 1972 he decided to leave Brazil.
He lived in both Germany and the South of France. To the end of his life, he was quite active writing and giving lectures around media theory. He died in 1991 in a car accident, while visiting his native Prague to give a lecture.
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January 1, 2018Vilém Flusser's Philosophy of Language is published in a serial by Flusser Archive among already published Flusseriana, Natural: Mind, On Doubt and Post-History and upcoming Language and Reality, Foundational Concepts of Western Thought and The Influence of Existential Thought Today. Ten articles compiled in this edition were the original Flusser's lectures held at Brazilian Institute of Philosophy (IBF) in São Paulo in 1965 and consequently published with Brazilian Institute of Technology and Aeronautics (ITA) Journal. Translated from Portuguese by Rodrigo Maltez Novaes, the book is added an introduction by Sean Cubitt providing substantial historical account for this particular manuscript, being important especially to the English speaking public, as only after a great popularity of his media theory and philosophy of technology.
The Philosophy of Language is indeed the philosophical account of the world through language. From at the beginning Flusser profiles the thesis by the claim "everything that is not linguistic, is absurd" (p. 10), introducing philosophy of language as the theory of knowledge itself. Language is prior to experience, he claims.
Grounding philosophy in language, Flusser's main interest falls in proper names, sentences, but also partially to predicate calculus. In theory of proper names Flusser defends the position of nominalism, which he sees as necessary when capturing philosophy through language. Proper names pre-exist any particular experience, as they are the source of language.
At the same time in ontology he is a dualist, distinguishing language from reality, which can be experienced only after the language. Structuring the reality from two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and finally mystic, Flusser paints Platonist ontology as mysticism, so it is no wonder that in his philosophical system (sketched at pp. 15-16), he replaces metaphysics of the theory of being with cosmology. By eliminating external reality, almost as being an epiphenomena, he concentrates on philosophy as the analysis of the true self, which exists dynamically in conversation with nothingness. Despite this stratified world, translations are possible, so Flusser provides insight into horizontal and vertical translations in the lecture number IV, and that is the only lecture in which he provides not bibliography but instead a note on the whole lecture is his own "theory of knowledge" in which knower and knowledge, external world and self, are but a two aspects of the same discourse, to which language is primordial.
Consequently, as the world is language-based, philosophy is itself a "small talk," which, Flusser means, talk that is not having any utilitarian purpose outside of the conversation or speech that is not performative for which he criticizes Marxism. Instead of taking Marxist point, being weak on instrumentalism, Flusser builds his philosophy between the two, to contemporary approaches to philosophy. He takes two philosophies – Existentialism arising in France and Neopositivism built in the USA by the Vienna School – as paradigmatic to the way art and science are exercised, each on own side. In this edition Flusser shows himself knowledgeable of different philosophical systems he uses as antipodes for constructing own arguments: besides Existentialist versus Neopositivist, also Western, by which he means mainly German idealism, versus Indian in regard to philosophy of self.
Amazingly enough, even in this early work, from 1965, we are finding rhizomes of his latter theories fully connected to contemporary digital discourse, as for example his definition of metaphysics; "there must be a computer that is the computer of all computers" (p. 62/3). Besides topos, what can be recognized in Flusser's pre-media phase is his style of writing. Flusser's texts, as writings the philosophy of photography and theory of technical image, are highly seductive, at certain points so flirting that it produces a question of there has been a slippery argument inside. Readers may find being overly convinced in points they would never have chosen to defend. Besides being a small booklet, enforcing quick reading and concentration, Philosophy of Language by Vilém Flusser is one of these books you will wait to read until finding a perfect place for a full intellectual hedonism.
***
This review was originally published by Leonardo https://www.leonardo.info/review/2017...
The Philosophy of Language is indeed the philosophical account of the world through language. From at the beginning Flusser profiles the thesis by the claim "everything that is not linguistic, is absurd" (p. 10), introducing philosophy of language as the theory of knowledge itself. Language is prior to experience, he claims.
Grounding philosophy in language, Flusser's main interest falls in proper names, sentences, but also partially to predicate calculus. In theory of proper names Flusser defends the position of nominalism, which he sees as necessary when capturing philosophy through language. Proper names pre-exist any particular experience, as they are the source of language.
At the same time in ontology he is a dualist, distinguishing language from reality, which can be experienced only after the language. Structuring the reality from two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and finally mystic, Flusser paints Platonist ontology as mysticism, so it is no wonder that in his philosophical system (sketched at pp. 15-16), he replaces metaphysics of the theory of being with cosmology. By eliminating external reality, almost as being an epiphenomena, he concentrates on philosophy as the analysis of the true self, which exists dynamically in conversation with nothingness. Despite this stratified world, translations are possible, so Flusser provides insight into horizontal and vertical translations in the lecture number IV, and that is the only lecture in which he provides not bibliography but instead a note on the whole lecture is his own "theory of knowledge" in which knower and knowledge, external world and self, are but a two aspects of the same discourse, to which language is primordial.
Consequently, as the world is language-based, philosophy is itself a "small talk," which, Flusser means, talk that is not having any utilitarian purpose outside of the conversation or speech that is not performative for which he criticizes Marxism. Instead of taking Marxist point, being weak on instrumentalism, Flusser builds his philosophy between the two, to contemporary approaches to philosophy. He takes two philosophies – Existentialism arising in France and Neopositivism built in the USA by the Vienna School – as paradigmatic to the way art and science are exercised, each on own side. In this edition Flusser shows himself knowledgeable of different philosophical systems he uses as antipodes for constructing own arguments: besides Existentialist versus Neopositivist, also Western, by which he means mainly German idealism, versus Indian in regard to philosophy of self.
Amazingly enough, even in this early work, from 1965, we are finding rhizomes of his latter theories fully connected to contemporary digital discourse, as for example his definition of metaphysics; "there must be a computer that is the computer of all computers" (p. 62/3). Besides topos, what can be recognized in Flusser's pre-media phase is his style of writing. Flusser's texts, as writings the philosophy of photography and theory of technical image, are highly seductive, at certain points so flirting that it produces a question of there has been a slippery argument inside. Readers may find being overly convinced in points they would never have chosen to defend. Besides being a small booklet, enforcing quick reading and concentration, Philosophy of Language by Vilém Flusser is one of these books you will wait to read until finding a perfect place for a full intellectual hedonism.
***
This review was originally published by Leonardo https://www.leonardo.info/review/2017...
Displaying 1 of 1 review