ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the problem that contemporary language philosophy faces today: its confrontation with the modern notion of the self-defining subject. The basic philosophical orientation has taken many divergent forms, from the empiricism of John Locke and David Hume to the rationalism of Leibniz and Benedict de Spinoza. The self-referential character of modern “subjectivized” philosophy has not only made epistemology the primary area of philosophical investigation, but has made epistemological issues especially problematic. From the early rationalists to the empiricists and realists, philosophy has been deeply troubled by reason’s inability to cross the gulf between the subject and the object. Continental philosophy has prided itself on revealing the naivete of the attempts of its predecessors to solve this problem. Moral philosophy brings to the surface what is central to the doing of any philosophy: a conception of what a human being is, whether explicit or implicit, that includes a conception of humanity’s place in the scheme of things.
