Philosophy of language explores some of the most abstract yet most fundamental questions in philosophy. The ideas of some of the subject's great founding figures, such as Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, as well as of more recent figures such as Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam, are central to a great many philosophical debates to this day. In this clear and carefully structured introduction to the subject Gary Kemp explains the following key topics: • the basic nature of philosophy of language, its concepts, and its historical development • Frege’s theory of sense and reference; Russell's theory of definite descriptions • Wittgenstein's Tractatus, Ayer, and the Logical Positivists • recent perspectives including Kripke, Kaplan and Putnam; arguments concerning necessity, indexicals, rigid designation and natural kinds • The pragmatics of language, including speech-acts, presupposition and conversational implicature • Davidson’s theory of language, the ‘principle of charity’, and the indeterminacy of interpretation • puzzles surrounding the propositional attitudes (sentences which ascribe beliefs to people) • Quine’s naturalism and its consequences for philosophy of language. • The challenges presented by the later Wittgenstein • Contemporary directions, including contextualism, fictional objects and the phenomenon of slurs This second edition has been thoroughly revised to include new key topics and updated material. Chapter summaries, annotated further reading and a glossary make this an indispensable introduction to those teaching philosophy of language and will be particularly useful for students coming to the subject for the first time.

当今，恶以显性存在于我们四周，但我们智识资源的缺乏使得我们难以充分地把握住它。我们所面对的信息中充斥着集中营、恐怖袭击和极端人类苦难的照片和影像，可当我们问及何为根本的恶时，我们却失语了，找不到合适的话语去描述它。伯恩斯坦试图去发掘恶与人类责任的意涵。他转向哲学家康德，正是他发明了这个概念，他还向黑格尔和谢林求索。他检视了弗洛伊德和尼采对伦理之恶的思考。最终，他为了把握“奥斯维辛之后”的恶，转向了三位战后思想家：伊曼努尔•列维纳斯、汉斯•约纳斯，以及汉娜•阿伦特。 理查德•伯恩斯坦的著作受到实证主义的感召，避免术语堆砌的同时在分析上达到了相当的高度，又深远地扎根于欧洲大陆的哲学传统，可谓代表了美国哲学流派的最高峰。在我看来，伯恩斯坦是当今哲学辩论的一声强音，不仅富于理智，而且富于人性。 ——西蒙•克里奇利，埃塞克斯大学理论研究中心