Abstract

In a radical attempt to explore and restructure the presuppositions in any philosophy of language. Edouard Morot-Sir examines such current concepts as "natural languages," "linguistic necessity," and "implicite, explicite." Challenging such thinkers as Bergson, Heidegger, Chomsky, and Rorty, he argues that reference is the fundamental act by which signs and referents exist and make sense, and that "any linguistic expression belongs to the experience of reference." As such, he writes, reference is the center of human cultural existence. All value judgments - whether religious, scientific, moral, or artistic - should be conceived of as positive or negative reference. He considers this work the necessary first step for a new form of criticism he proposes to call "reference criticism."