Abstract
The intimate relationship Wittgenstein discerned between language and thought encourages one to adopt the methodological maxim, “If one wants to understand thought, first analyze the linguistic practices through which that kind of thought (or feeling) is realized.” But this maxim will not do without qualification. Two ambiguities need to be resolved. What sort of analysis of linguistic practice is likely to be illuminating? Is it just a study of grammar? And is this the only public and collective phenomenon we need to study to understand some such psychological matter as the emotions or human rationality? I believe we should distinguish between a purely grammatical investigation and one devoted to revealing the “logical syntax” of a linguistic practice. Any student of human life must also take into account the local moral order, the system of rights, obligations and duties obtaining in a society, together with the criteria by which people and their activities are valued.
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© 1987 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Harré, R. (1987). Grammar, Psychology and Moral Rights. In: Chapman, M., Dixon, R.A. (eds) Meaning and the Growth of Understanding. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83023-5_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83023-5_12
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