ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4 I contrasted our knowledge of ‘what we say’, in the sense that is relevant to philosophy, with empirical knowledge about language or languages. Here, as in other parts of the book, I have supported the separation of philosophy from empirical science. Now it must be admitted that as far as the word ‘philosophy’ is concerned, this separation is of fairly recent date. The word was formerly used to include, or even to mean, what is called ‘science’ nowadays. (It was in this sense that Galileo used the word when, applying for a post in Florence in 1610, ‘he insisted on being described as a philosopher, not as a mathematician’.1) On the other hand, the words ‘science’ and ‘scientific’ have often been used without the empirical connotation.
