Are Word and Concept the Same? Natural Language and Philosophical Language
“When I say ousia or on for Being, it's not simply a conventional sign associated with a concept; you cannot dissociate a concept from a language, from what we call a natural language.” — Jacques Derrida , Talking Liberties , interview with Alan Montefiore 1. The Problem of Familiar Words When we read philosophy, we encounter words such as word , term , meaning , concept , language , and sign , and we usually have little difficulty understanding them in ordinary contexts. We know what a word is, what it means for something to have a meaning , and what it is to call something a concept . Speakers intuitively recognize the units that matter in discourse, even though they may not be able to explain systematically how those units are distinguished or related. The difficulty begins when these familiar terms become part of a philosophical argument, where distinctions that seem obvious in ordinary contexts may acquire a more precise or entirely different role. This...