Philosophy of Language (Princeton Foundations of Contemporary Philosophy, 2) Paperback – September 24, 2012

In search of an introduction to language of philosophy, i bought this book based on a couple of the reviews here that mentioned this book as a book to read for that layperson, instead of books by Noam Chomsky. Although I was proud that i was able to grab most of the text, i found most very parochial and specific to those who study this for a living, especially those with a background in math. I would recommend this as part of course material but not for getting a basic handle on the subject.

Like the book but it is written more for the scholar readers who understand the bases of philosophy. Always good to learn something new everyday.

Scott Soames in this text discusses various logics and associated philosophies of language with their appearance. The text is an introductory text to not just these languages and logics but some of the problems that guide analytic philosophy of language. The text covers influential work by David K. Lewis, Donald Davidson, Saul Kripke and others. The text also contains examples of the languages and basic intros on how to read them. It is a good book for someone who is interested in the field but unsure of where to begin because of its depth. It portrays the issues in philosophy of language as intermeshed with other issues which makes it accessible to an audience not familiar with philosophy of language and its problems. It would even be accessible for a person who is not familiar with philosophy itself because of the way it intermixes issues and is so problem focused. Knowledge of first order and second order logic would greatly aid in helping to appreciating this text because larger issues being focused on rather than local issues associated with the languages appear.

The text is a good source for contemporary state of the philosophy. Text is also reviewing some of the most important past progress, where formulation is given, it is given with clarity so that even the reader with mathematical and logical education having is still interested also and vice versa: text demands virtually no mathematical background. It starts with Frege's consepts and extends meaning throught possible worlds semantics a little further. I'm just studying the book and must say that Mr. Soames seems a true scholar on the topic. I can warmly recommend also to even graduated and doctorates as well as to hobbyist on the area.

This is not the book to read for people with little to no analytic philosophical background. Even as someone who studied it in college, it was difficult for me to keep up at times. There are other books to read if you want to learn more about the philosophy of language. Colin Mcginn's book is much more accessible. What I like about this book however is that it goes into more technical detail about logical aspects.

This book is a gem. The author is well known and his writings in this area of philosophy will only increase in value. It pays to own a book like this.l

Published in 2010 Scott Soames' `Philosophy of Language' is an instalment in Princeton Foundations of Contemporary Philosophy series. Soames is a well known philosopher with numerous publications in the philosophy of language.In this brief text (less than 200 pages) Soames focuses on two subjects that have occupied many thinkers in the analytic tradition over the last century, the search for a comprehensive theoretical framework for the study of language and the analysis of linguistic notions such as, reference, truth, meaning, and so on. The discussion takes place within the mathematic-logical strand of the philosophy of language, the tradition that runs through; Frege, Russell, Tarski, Carnap, Quinn, Kripke, and their successors. As opposed to the less formal strand that tracks through Latter Wittgenstein, Austin, Searle et al.An accomplished philosopher in his own right Soames is particularly adept at summarizing and assessing the work of others. It is important to note that while this is an excellent piece of work; the writing is terse and dense, aimed very much at an expert audience. Despite being familiar with the subject matter the book caused me to go back and reread chunks of Frege, Russell and Tarski (by no means a bad thing). Soames' 2-Volume work `Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century' is also helpful in providing background information and context.Overall, this is an excellent book by an excellent philosopher. I recommend it for advanced students of the philosophy of language. For readers seeking a broader introductory-level piece Searle's short essay `What is Language' available on internet may be worth a look.

This book is more of a description of truth-functional and meta-logic schools in the philosophy of language then philosophy of language overall. It ignores the very significant substantive criticism by philosophers such as P.M.S. Hacker and G.P. Baker much of it based on the later works of Ludwig Wittgenstein who argue that these popular schools have created nonsense that has only aesthetic value.

One of several volumes written on the philosophy of language and analytic philosophy by Soames. He is a well-respected thinker on the subject and Princeton UP is pretty good source of philosophical books and publications. Overall a good book for those interested in analytic philosophy and linguistics.

If this is where the Anglo/American Philosophy has come to in the 20 odd years since I studied it at university, it has reached a complete dead end. I rather think, though, I get this feeling from the writer, who is opaque, allusive and smug all at the same time. One dud!