Beyond Language
A Philosophical Journey
- Philosophy
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2021
FritzSearch.com earns a commission on purchases made through Bookshop.org links.
Publisher's Description
Our use of everyday language should be mysterious, but familiarity hides the feeling of mystery. This book is a brief meditation on that mysterious activity. Building language outward from descriptions of the present moment, the meditation moves through our talk about space and time, to the realm of everyday thinking and science. But language enriches us further--through communities of meaning (morality, art, mysticism) to transcendence (the universe, God, and self). This meditation repeatedly cycles us from familiarity to wonder--about community, about consciousness, and ultimately about life itself.
Endorsements (4)
“This Heraclitean-like exploration of language, time, science, relationship, law, and transcendence—written in succinct prose capped with spare, arresting poetry—will lead a reader to self-reflection and to an enriched awareness of reality’s elemental but expansive force. The author’s generous humanity evinces—and evokes—a sense of gratitude ‘for all that is.’”
“Walker fought in Vietnam, completed his PhD in philosophy, trained and practiced law in New York, and retired to work pro bono on behalf of social justice. Beyond Language is his first excursion into literature and poetry. Its key theme is that literature and fine art enable us to explore the limits of the verbal pathways we construct to communicate as social beings, and thereby to understand what exists beyond language. The book itself is an artistic accomplishment.”
“Part philosophy of language, part deep personal meditation, Beyond Language is a profound and sensitive exploration of the omnipresence and potency of words. Words define us personally and communally. Through words we encounter systems of law and worlds of artistic expression. Walker teaches us that only through words can we grasp what it is to be human and to seek to approach the infinite.”
“As a philosopher, law professor, and researcher in artificial intelligence, Vern Walker has examined more closely than most how we use language to perform real work in the world. In this fascinating book, Professor Walker extends his view beyond language. Combining poetic expression and analytic prose in this work of experience, knowledge, and beauty, he employs ‘language to demonstrate the limitations of language,’ the most important work language can perform.”
See something wrong on this page? Report a problem