{"id":2539,"date":"2021-07-12T15:09:32","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T15:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2021\/07\/12\/montaigne-on-why-language-matters\/"},"modified":"2021-07-12T15:09:32","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T15:09:32","slug":"montaigne-on-why-language-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2021\/07\/12\/montaigne-on-why-language-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Montaigne on Why Language Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">My <a href=\"https:\/\/williamfvallicella.substack.com\/p\/montaigne-on-why-language-matters?r=f3tzc&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=copy\">Substack latest<\/a> begins like this after a quotation from the Frenchman:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">Montaigne&#39;s point is mine.&#0160; Language matters.&#0160; It deserves respect as the vehicle and enabler of our thoughts and \u2014 to change the metaphor \u2014 the common currency for the exchange of ideas.&#0160; To tamper with the accepted meanings of words in order &#0160;to secure argumentative or political advantage is a form of cheating.&#0160; Ludwig Wittgenstein likened languages to games.&#0160; But games have rules, and we cannot tolerate those who change the rules mid-game.&#0160; We must demand of our political opponents that they use language responsibly, and engage us on the common terrain of accepted usage.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">Assorted other rants, riffs, railings, resistings, and refusals are on my Facebook page.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Substack latest begins like this after a quotation from the Frenchman: Montaigne&#39;s point is mine.&#0160; Language matters.&#0160; It deserves respect as the vehicle and enabler of our thoughts and \u2014 to change the metaphor \u2014 the common currency for the exchange of ideas.&#0160; To tamper with the accepted meanings of words in order &#0160;to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2021\/07\/12\/montaigne-on-why-language-matters\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Montaigne on Why Language Matters&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters","category-montaigne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}