The Research On The Philosophy Of Language Of McLuhanism

McLuhanism is a unique term which is used by French academic for summarizing the academic thoughts put forward by Marshall McLuhan and the related school. Philosophy of language is the philosophical thinking about language. Philosophy of language of McLuhanism is the philosophical reflection which refers to the essential attribute and the social function of the language media by western McLuhanism school. The first ultimate goal of such reflection is to explore the natural and social properties of the language media, and the second is to explore the social relations of between people and media which are reflected from the language media and human natural relation. Philosophy of language of McLuhanism by western McLuhanism school in this paper is about the metaphysics system constructed by the four dimensions which are ontology, epistemology, axiology and the theory of evolution. Compared with the general "philosophy of language", Philosophy of language of McLuhanism has its unique research object and category. Taking the relations between the language media and human and society as research object, it is to explore the origin of human being and "language" in ontology, and the function of "language" for human cognition in axiology, and the attribute value and significance of "language" in epistemology, and the evolution of "language" in the theory of evolution. Thus, the four theories belong to the most basic philosophical category in Philosophy of language of McLuhanism.The first chapter is about the ontology of language of McLuhanism. The core viewpoint of the ontology of language of McLuhanism is that the language media and human have established their existence and nature respectively in the relationship of extension. Since Marshall McLuhan proposed the famous argument,"the media is the extension of man", the relationship of interactive extension of media and human is always in-depth studying and exploring by western McLuhanism school. The relationship between "language" which is a typical representative of all media and human has occupied an important position from the study of McLuhan start. On this basis, the ontology of language of McLuhanism propose the new proposition,"the interactive extension between language and human", and hope to show the academic solicitude on human nature hidden behind the media, and contribute to "philosophy of language" itself, by combing through the analysis of McLuhanism School about "language", the"meta-media".The second chapter is about the epistemology of language of McLuhanism. The theme of epistemology is to explore how to cognitive the origin which needs the help of cognitive tool, and language media, as the extension of human cognitive ability, is the key of this research."The cognitive subject"(human) use "the cognitive tool"(language media) to know "the cognitive object" in history and the axiology of language of McLuhanism is about these two aspects:firstly,"the cognitive subject"(human) is how to use "the cognitive tool"(language media); secondly,"the cognitive tool"(language media) is how to play its role. From the language media forms (divided into the media of speaking, writing and electronic) in different stages, this part will discuss the causes and impacts of the cognitive tool, language by analyzing the cognitive ability and thinking habit of people. But there are some problems need attention. Because the epistemology of language also implies mcluhanesque meaning,"media determinism", it emphasizes the decisive effect by language media on the cognitive subject and played down the subjective cognition itself.The third chapter is about the axiology of language of McLuhanism. Axiology mainly explores the inspected object whether and how to satisfy the needs of the subject and further research its value attribute and significance in the process. On this basis, the axiology of language of McLuhanism explores language media how to satisfy the needs of human cognition and its value attribute and significance. Specifically, the axiology of language of McLuhanism is the philosophical theory about functional value of the language media, and it mainly includes political value, cultural value and cognitive value of language media. Therefore, from the effects and significance of the language media on individual, country and society, this part will investigate and evaluate the function and value of politics, culture and cognition about language media on human and the whole society.The forth chapter is about the theory of evolution of language of McLuhanism. The theory of evolution is used to explain the phenomena of heteromorphosis between the biological parental and offspring, and in fact, the gradual progress of media form is also one kind of evolution. This part will set the typical media, language media as the object of evolution, and hope to show the evolution of language media through analyzing the development of language media in every stage. The core viewpoint of the theory of evolution of language of McLuhanism is as follows:language is the origin of media technology evolution, and it can even say that language is "media of media", the meta-media. The forms of language are "spoken language"("speech") and"visible language"("written language"), both of which are the content of all media. That is to say, the evolution of language exists in all media since the born of speech, from books to computer, from the radio and TV to hypertext and network, and language is the content of all media, which is the embodiment of the theory of evolution.