ABSTRACT
O ne of the most striking features of the intellectual history of the past century is the relentless convergence of the hitherto separate fields of language and ethics. In the extended context of the Western tradition, this convergence may appear shocking, for ethical philosophers since Plato have generally dis-- trusted language, especially literary language, as a subversive distraction from the kind of worldly rigor needed to conduct sound ethical reasoning. But from another point of view, this convergence is not surprising. From the begin-- ning-since God created the world, and man, by a word-language has been felt to be instinct with spirit and has therefore always been a tempting resource for those who have struggled to articulate the relation of man, the only linguis-- tic animal, and the ethical law that binds man and man alone. For this reason, language and ethics have never been altogether distinct concepts, and have indeed always demonstrated a kind of magnetic attraction for each other.
