[MD] Truth and the Linguistic Turn

[David M]

Now, one of my hang-ups in the conversation that I wasn't totally cognizant 
of is your use of "grammar." I've always thought of it as a basically post 
hoc set of convention-differentiators. As an activity, it didn't begin to 
arise (in the West) until in and around the 5th century BCE, as you've been 
saying. I think my trouble has been that you occasionally seem to use the 
term "grammar" to mean, not just "the categorization of conventional word 
usage," but also "word usage." This would be a mistake, I think, and it is 
one that I think Heidegger occasional commits. For instance, it might lead 
one to say that, before Plato and Aristotle, there _was no differentiation 
between nouns and verbs_. That would be a mistake and false. There was 
differentiation, it was simply that nobody was explicitly and articulately 
_aware_ of what the difference was--speaking a language is a kind of 
know-how, not a grammatical knowing-that. This isn't to exactly downplay 
what you are pointing out (following Heidegger and Allen), but just to try 
and become more aware of what we are exactly talking about. Because it is 
certainly the case that _after_ we became explicitly aware of the difference 
between a noun and a verb, that self-conscious awareness (particularly in 
Aristotle) effected language-patterns.  And very specifically and germane to 
Pirsig and philosophy, it did effect the history and evolution of 
philosophical discussion.



DM: Of course, Derrida thought it was worth making a play about 
Grammatology. I certainly see ontology as being what we can say
about those aspects of langauge and description that look like some of the 
most basic or key moves in the play of differentiations that we
bring about via language. Most basic in the sense of looking like they have 
the most impact on everything else we can describe
and discuss. Plays like DQ/SQ and subject and object, past and present, near 
and far, left and right, etc. Ontology/grammar pretty
inseparable I'd suggest. Language enriches/transforms our pre/-linguistic 
sensuous experience and is world disclosing, as the pre-linguistic
and sensual is not really a worlded form of experience, nor unworlded either 
of course, pre-worlded experience we might say.