Reason and the Nature of Texts

Reason and the Nature of Texts PDF Author: James L. Battersby
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512809365
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Many of today's most prominent critics and teachers of literature insist on the endless deferral of textual meaning and on the social construction of meaning and thought. Against these markers of current critical theory, James L. Battersby argues for the authorial construction of determinate textual meaning, insisting that to think about anything at all we must be able to refer to it, and that such references are, necessarily, the semantic consequences of an author's deliberate, intentional acts. Propelling Battersby's argument is his use of principles and arguments drawn from current philosophical literature on language and mind. Battersby reveals the philosophical shortcomings and argumentative weaknesses of some of the most prominent and influential doctrines in critical theory today—especially, and principally, those that inform and define postmodernism in both its linguistic and historicist/materialist modes. As he argues for a fresh conception of our understanding of language, mind, and meaning, Battersby probes the critical positions of, among others, Stanley Fish, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul de Man, and Jacques Derrida. Making room for an alternative and, Battersby asserts, more intellectually appealing framework requires a skeptical dissection of the linguistic and historicist tenets that form the foundation of poststructuralism. The striking outcome of his effort is a book as lively, erudite, theoretically informed—and provocative—as his earlier Paradigms Regained.

Reason and the Nature of Texts

Reason and the Nature of Texts PDF Author: James L. Battersby
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512809365
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Many of today's most prominent critics and teachers of literature insist on the endless deferral of textual meaning and on the social construction of meaning and thought. Against these markers of current critical theory, James L. Battersby argues for the authorial construction of determinate textual meaning, insisting that to think about anything at all we must be able to refer to it, and that such references are, necessarily, the semantic consequences of an author's deliberate, intentional acts. Propelling Battersby's argument is his use of principles and arguments drawn from current philosophical literature on language and mind. Battersby reveals the philosophical shortcomings and argumentative weaknesses of some of the most prominent and influential doctrines in critical theory today—especially, and principally, those that inform and define postmodernism in both its linguistic and historicist/materialist modes. As he argues for a fresh conception of our understanding of language, mind, and meaning, Battersby probes the critical positions of, among others, Stanley Fish, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul de Man, and Jacques Derrida. Making room for an alternative and, Battersby asserts, more intellectually appealing framework requires a skeptical dissection of the linguistic and historicist tenets that form the foundation of poststructuralism. The striking outcome of his effort is a book as lively, erudite, theoretically informed—and provocative—as his earlier Paradigms Regained.

Reason in Nature

Reason in Nature PDF Author: Matthew Boyle
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674241045
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Against the dominant view of reductive naturalism, John McDowell argues that human life should be seen as transformed by reason so that human minds, while not supernatural, are sui generis. This collection assembles eleven critical essays that highlight the enduring significance and wide ramifications of McDowell’s unorthodox position.

Why I Write

Why I Write PDF Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Renard Press Ltd
ISBN: 1913724263
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 15

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Book Description
George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times

The Idea of a Text and the Nature of Textual Meaning

The Idea of a Text and the Nature of Textual Meaning PDF Author: Anders Pettersson
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027266018
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
In his account of text and textual meaning, Pettersson demonstrates that a text as commonly conceived is not only a verbal structure but also a physical entity, two kinds of phenomena which do not in fact add up to a unitary object. He describes this current notion of text as convenient enough for many practical purposes, but inadequate in discussions of a theoretically more demanding nature. Having clearly demonstrated its intellectual drawbacks, he develops an alternative, boldly revisionary way of thinking about text and textual meaning. His careful argument is in challenging dialogue with assumptions about language-in-use to be found in a wide range of present-day literary theory, linguistics, philosophical aesthetics, and philosophy of language.

Hutcheson: Two Texts on Human Nature

Hutcheson: Two Texts on Human Nature PDF Author: Francis Hutcheson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521430895
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746) was the first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment, and one of the great thinkers in the history of British moral philosophy. He firmly rejected the reductionist view, common then as now, that morality is nothing more than the prudent pursuit of self-interest, arguing in favour of a theory of a moral sense. The two texts presented here are the most eloquent expressions of this theory. The Reflections on our Common Systems of Morality insists on the connection between moral philosophy and moral improvement, and was a preview of his first major work, the Inquiry of 1725. The lecture On the Social Nature of Man, arguing against the psychological egoism of Hobbes, appears here in an English translation for the first time. Thomas Mautner's introduction and editorial apparatus provide a mass of new information, helping to give the reader a sense of the intellectual climate in which Hutcheson lived.

How Nature Taught Man to Know, Imagine, and Reason

How Nature Taught Man to Know, Imagine, and Reason PDF Author: Eduard Hugo Strauch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philology
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
This text describes each lesson nature taught man and explains how each is distinctly present in language, writing strategies, literature, poetics, and literary theories. Together, these modes compose the epistemology man has used over the millennia.

An Essay Upon Reason, and the Nature of Spirits (1694)

An Essay Upon Reason, and the Nature of Spirits (1694) PDF Author: Richard Burthogge
Publisher: Kessinger Publishing
ISBN: 9781104856038
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Text-book in the English Language for December 1869

Text-book in the English Language for December 1869 PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Glossary of Technical Words, Phrases, Maxims, and Abbreviations Found in the Text of the Popular Or Students' Edition of the Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure

Glossary of Technical Words, Phrases, Maxims, and Abbreviations Found in the Text of the Popular Or Students' Edition of the Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure PDF Author: Robert Grattan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Abbreviations
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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The Works of Shakespeare: the Text Carefully Restored According to the First Editions: Life of Shakespeare. Historical sketch of the English drama before Shakespeare. Poems and Sonnets

The Works of Shakespeare: the Text Carefully Restored According to the First Editions: Life of Shakespeare. Historical sketch of the English drama before Shakespeare. Poems and Sonnets PDF Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English drama
Languages : en
Pages : 596

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Book Description