Blindness to silence

some dysfunctional aspects of meaning making

Steve Fuller

pp. 325-338

in: Herbert Otto, James Tuedio (eds), Perspectives on mind, Berlin, Springer, 1988

Abstract

One of Herbert Otto's main goals in "Meaning Making: Some Functional Aspects" appears to be to stage a sort of crucial experiment between contemporary analytic and Continental approaches to meaning. Otto construes the point of contention very much in the manner of an analytic philosopher. He assumes that whatever other things words do (and we are asked to think of J.L. Austin here), they aim to inform. It follows that adequate translation must, at least, reproduce in the target language (TL) information conveyed originally in the source language (SL). [1] Moreover, Otto understands this information to be something objectively available to both languages, and capable of analysis in an extensional semantics.

Cited authors

Otto Herbert