Close Talking

Schoeller examines the linguistic challenge of articulating experienced backgrounds and contexts. When situational complexity is brought to language, it often only becomes clear what is at stake in a way that allows for further thinking and feeling. This can sometimes lead to extremely unusual statements. This study investigates the precision of a tentative formulation that allows for an unpredictable development of meaning. Such meaning is hardly captured by the philosophical models of representation or construction, and it also breaks through the framework of Ordinary Language Philosophy. Taking into account the approaches of embodiment, Schoeller develops a theory of meaning at the intersection of pragmatism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, psychology, and cognitive sciences, where situational experience and language use interact in a differentiating and clarifying manner. A deeper understanding of the formulation process also supports a non-reductive and subtle language practice in dealing with ordinary experience in everyday life.