The meaning of words: analysed into words and unverbal things, and unverbal things classified into intellections, sensations, and emotions
New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1854. First edition, 8vo, pp. 256; original brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine; spine sunned, library pocket removed from inside back cover, old accession numbers on spine partially eradicated; good and sound. A reprint was issued in Milwaukee in 1948, and another in New York in 1969, which we've catalogued before, but this is the first time the original edition has come our way. Johnson immigrated to the United States in 1801 and eventually became a wealthy banker in Utica, N.Y. He anticipated many of the concerns of logical positivism and modern linguistic philosophy....He held that a statement meant, for a speaker, whatever evidence he adduced or could adduce in its support: Language does not explain the world, rather the world explains language. He showed that many philosophical problems were the result of projecting distinctions of language onto nature, resulting in confusion. In addition to his philosophical works he wrote on politics, economics, and banking. His books included The Philosophy of Human Knowledge; or A Treatise on Language (1828), Religion in Its Relation to Present Life (1841), The Philosophical Emperor (1841), and The Meaning of Words (1854) -- Columbia Encyclopedia. Item #54027
Price: $200.00
