A Study On Aquinas’s Language Philosophy

Aquinas’s theory of Verbum have both medieval theological philosophy of language features, and a distinct philosophy of features, which in essence is a kind of Christian philosophy of language. If we want to cancel its theological basement to construct the so-called pure philosophy of language, it would be a kind of deconstructive practice, which can only lead to negative results of their characteristics. Thomas combines Augustinism and Aristotelianism two different languages philosophical traditions, then puts forward a unique theory of discourse,in which a interior word is as the core and covers "Word of God". Therefore, his theory of Verbum not only has an inherent historical affinity with the Greek philosophy of language, but also is inseparable from the unique cultural context with the entire Christian religion. In order to comprehend the Christian "Word of God", it makes the language problems in the surface of the Greek philosophy when using and transforming Greek metaphysics. From the Godfather of the times until the Middle Ages, Christian religious traditions have attempted to upgrade to the ontology language status, beyond the epistemological problem, because God is with the "Road" to create the world. In the Thomas era, one of the intense debates of epistemological problem in Christian theology is whether limited human could understand the nature of an infinite God or not. However, this "epistemological problem" at the time of the debate usually manifests by whether human language could express the sacred nature. As human’s understanding come from the experience, and ideas are from the experience of another creature, so how the expression of human ideas and experience transcend the limitations of the alleged infinite God, must first be addressed as a Philosophy of Language problem. Thomas’s discourse theory is an effort t to resolve the problem, although it also narrows in the sacred nature of human language in expressing the semantics of the problem arising. This article attempts to clarify Aquinas’s core theory of discourse and linguistic thought, and highlight its historical value and current significance. It is based on Aquinas’philosophy of language and present status of such an understanding, we establish the topic" Aquinas’s Philosophy of Language,", through studying a long history of philosophy and analyzing texts in the clue of knowledge of the nature based on Aquinas’s Ontology,epistemology and the three monotheistic level of language.,comprehensively and profoundly presents the overall style of Aquinas’s Philosophy of Language;highlights the characteristics of the unity of philosophy of language in Aquinas’s philosophy of language; reveals the historical status of Aquinas "and contemporary significance to demonstrate the level of awareness beyond the Greek philosophy of language; Finally, it will show the creativity of Aquinas’s language of certainty and its impacts on the formation and development of contemporary theories of philosophy of religious language.From the content point of view, in chapter 1, this paper studies the background of ideas generated and origins of the Aquinas’s philosophy of language.In this chapter, ChapterⅡdiscusses Aquinas’s theoretical basis for the philosophy of language problems; this section is divided into two parts:firstly, summarizes Aquinas’s metaphysical foundation for the philosophy of language by discussing the origin of Aquinas’Ontology and the doctrine of essence before existence. Secondly, through the exploration of philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, analyze the three levels and three methods of speech.In chapter 3, the author tries to explore an important aspect of language-analogy theory in the philosophy of Aquinas. Analogy theory is the basic methodology of its philosophy of language, philosophy of language is its inherent nature. The author attempts to explore the source of analogy theory, basic theory of meaning and analogy of the predicate.In chapters 4, it firstly discusses the relationship between Aquinas’s philosophy of language and the Trinity doctrine through analysis on the areas of the philosophy of language related to doctrine of the Trinity theory. The second part is mainly through discussion of the creative meaning of Aquinas’s philosophy of language to analyze the language of creativity and identity issues.In chapter 5, it concerns about the concept of words as an epistemological problem. And this chapter is divided into three parts.The first part introduces Aquinas’s words (Verbum) theory, revealing the word’s meaning and nature of related issues; the Second part analyzes the basic meaning of the word, the relationship between internal words and external words, the relationship between intrinsic words and reality and so on; Finally, we attempt to analyze the relationship between the Word of God and the human language problem. This part of the content is mainly analyzes the related problems of the existence and the unity of language around the Verbum. The central issue of chapters 3,4 and 5, mainly analyze the basic meaning of Aquinas’s philosophy of language through Aquinas’s epistemology, theology, existentialism, trinity and creationism.