Images of Languages: Six Essays on German Attitudes to European Languages from 1500 - 1800 Book

When we come up with terms or concepts, we do not have full knowledge of what in the world we are talking about, or the range of future uses of those terms or concepts. Each term is just good enough for our immediate purposes. Over time, as we learn more and get busy with other things, each term or concept gets stretched, bended, twisted, and shaped for new ranges of uses. Mark Wilson believes that the clearest cases of these evolutions of meaning are found in the history of applied mathematics, and so much of this long and complex book is dedicated to teasing out very technical details of mathematicians and engineers revising old conceptual tools to accomplish new practical tricks. But there is also some P. G. Wodehouse in Wilson, so these complex matters are infused with wry observations and wit. His discussions are subtle and detailed enough to give the definite impression that most philosophers just have not read enough to be as confident as they are in the sweeping claims they are making. The details matter; indeed, Wilson's thesis might be that the details are all there are, and philosophical generalizations flatten out the map into one that does not capture the world in any helpful way.