Heidegger, Language, and World-Disclosure

This book is a major contribution to the understanding of Heidegger and a rare attempt to bridge the schism between traditions of analytic and Continental philosophy. Cristina Lafont applies the core methodology of analytic philosophy, language analysis, to Heidegger’s work providing both a clearer exegesis and a powerful critique of his approach to the subject of language. In Part One, she explores the Heideggerean conception of language in depth. In Part Two, she draws on recent work from theorists of direct reference (Putnam, Donnellan and Kripke inter alia) to reveal the limitations of Heidegger’s views and to show how language shapes our understanding of the world without making learning impossible. The book first appeared in German but has been substantially revised for the English edition.

• Heidegger is arguably the most influential philosopher of the 20th Century and anything on him will sell • This bridges gap between analytic and Continental philosophy; appeal to a broad church of philosophers as well as readers outside philosophy • Extensively revised for the English edition

Introduction: the linguistic turn in the German tradition of the philosophy of language; Part I. Heidegger’s Conception of Language: 1. The role of language in Being and Time as the hidden root of the disclosedness of Dasein; 2. The role of language after the Kehre as the ‘site’ of world-disclosure; 3. World-disclosure and truth; Part II. The Structural Problems of Heidegger’s Conception of Language: 4. The conception of meaning and reference implied by the ontological difference; 5. The A priori/A posteriori distinction implied by the ontological difference.