Language, Being and Cognition : Philosophy of Language and Analysis: Contemporary Perspective

Contents: I. Philosophy and the theories of language: 1. Philosophy and its public utility. 2. Sphota theory of language. 3. Autonomy theory of language. 4. Indivisibility thesis of language. II. Analysis of word and word-meaning: 5. Analysis of how and what we know by a word. 6. Potency of language. 7. Language and substance. 8. Language and Universal. III. Analysis of sentence and verbal-cognition: 9. Concept of sentence: the signifier. 10. Theories of verbal cognition (Vakarthabodha). 11. Language and thought. 12. Language, being and cognition. IV. Language and reality: 13. Language and reality. 14. Language and Negation: Ontic non-being (Abhava) Vs. Philosophical being. 15. Jain theory of language and indescribability of reality. 16. Meaning of religious ideas of Buddhism. V. Critique of epistemology and knowledge by expressions: 17. Cognition and critique of epistemology. 18. Language, and possibility disinterested knowledge. 19. Meaning of moral language. 20. The nature of language and logic of translation and analysis. VI. Communication and interpretation: 21. Language and grammar. 22. Language and culture. 23. Language and communication. 24. Text, rules interpretation and determination of meaning. 25. Critical estimate. Index.

The book has developed a unique style in presenting the views on language. I fully agree with the author that language is basically an expresser and that it is independently of the world. I enjoyed the way the author has presented this view. Author’s comment on contemporary western philosophers of language especially Wittgenstein and Derrida are well taken. Wittgenstein supports the grammarian point of view and agrees the even reference has to be within language. Derrida’s Transcendental signified has been rightly criticized in the book. Overall it is an excellent piece of writing for the benefit of Indian philosophy of language from contemporary perspective. I am happy to see your new book. It is a marvelous piece of work on Language, Being and Cognition. It has covered all areas of philosophy of language and cognition especially Indian philosophy of language is interpreted in a new way.