Form and Content: Dualism and Non-Dualism in the Study of Concepts

Form and Content is a study of the philosophy of mind of Noam Chomsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Noam Chomsky developed the theory of transformational generative grammar, a mechanistic theory of linguistic form (structure, or... [ view full abstract ]

Form and Content is a study of the philosophy of mind of Noam Chomsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Noam Chomsky developed the theory of transformational generative grammar, a mechanistic theory of linguistic form (structure, or syntax) during the latter half of the 20th century. In his Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein developed a therapeutic method of philosophy which brings the reader in touch with the content (the meaning or experience) of their thoughts. Form and Content is written in three sections. Part I: The Nature of Mechanical Philosophy begins by tracing the origins of the mechanical conception of the nature of the Universe from the scientific revolution to contemporary neuroscience. Following Chomsky's analysis, a misreading of Descartes and Newton over the last 300 years - that Newton succeeded in exorcising the ghost from Cartesian Dualism with his corpuscular theory of nature - has led to "serious, dubious and ubiquitous" misunderstanding of the history of science and philosophy of mind. Part II: The Nature of Semantic Theory follows this misconception into the domain of semantics and philosophy of language. In Part III: The Creative Aspect of Language Use, the work of John Spackman and William Waldron is used to synthesize Cartesian and Chomskyan Dualism with Nāgārjunian and Wittgensteinian Non-Dualism. The coincidence of opposites of dualist and non-dualist philosophy of mind creates space for understanding meaning as an aethereal aspect of the mind/world, beyond naturalization or formalization. Strangely, we find, the ghost is not in the machine because the machine is in the ghost.