Philosophy and the Language of the People:The Claims of Common Speech from Petrarch to Locke

Which language should philosophers use: technical or common language? In abook as important for intellectual historians as it is for philosophers, Lodi Nautaaddresses a vital question which still has resonance today: is the disciplineof philosophy assisted or disadvantaged by employing a special vocabulary?By the Middle Ages, philosophy had become a highly technical discipline,with its own lexicon and methods. The Renaissance humanist critique of thisspecialized language has been dismissed as philosophically superficial, but theauthor demonstrates that it makes a crucial though controversial point: it isthrough the misuse of language that philosophical problems arise. He chartsthe influence of this critique on early modern philosophers, including Hobbesand Locke, and shows how it led to the downfall of medieval Aristotelianismand the gradual democratization of language and knowledge. This book willbe essential reading for anyone interested in the transition from medieval tomodern philosophy