Words and Things
by Ernest Gellner
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When Ernest Gellner was his early thirties, he took it upon himself to challenge the prevailing philosophical orthodoxy of the day, Linguistic Philosophy. Finding a powerful ally in Bertrand Russell, who provided the foreword for this book, Gellner embarked on the project that was to put him on the intellectual map. The first determined attempt to state the premises and operational rules of the movement, Words and Things remains philosophy's most devastating attack on a conventional wisdom show more to this day. show lessTags
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Indeed Gellner criticizes "linguistic philosophy" in this book, but this designates a very specific philosophical school: the 1950's Oxford school of "language games" and "ordinary language" inspired by the late writings of Wittgenstein. So this is NOT an attack on the branch we call "philosophy of language" today, as I assumed when I bought it.
The school of linguistic philosophy that Gellner attacks is now more or less defunct in the form that he presents it, but that doesn't necessarily make this book outdated. Many forms of pseudo-philosophy (postmodernism, for example) are still prevalent and much of what Gellner says can be readily applied to any anti-rational doctrines.
And certainly the book is worth reading just for entertainment show more as well. Few modern philosophy writers can match Gellner's combination of intelligence and humour. The only negative is that the book is a bit too long, so there's some unnecessary repetition towards the end. show less
The school of linguistic philosophy that Gellner attacks is now more or less defunct in the form that he presents it, but that doesn't necessarily make this book outdated. Many forms of pseudo-philosophy (postmodernism, for example) are still prevalent and much of what Gellner says can be readily applied to any anti-rational doctrines.
And certainly the book is worth reading just for entertainment show more as well. Few modern philosophy writers can match Gellner's combination of intelligence and humour. The only negative is that the book is a bit too long, so there's some unnecessary repetition towards the end. show less
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Ernest Gellner is equally well known as a sociologist, philosopher and social anthropologist. He was Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics from 1962 to 1984 and is currently Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge
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