Reinventing Applications of Ordinary Language Philosophy

Abstract

It has been claimed that the application of ordinary language philosophy has almost entirely declined since the 1970s following the development of systematic semantic theory. This is due to the allegation that it had less interest among philosophers and moved to be a historical movement. This paper presents an overview of the application of ordinary language philosophy and offers a critical discussion of the different approaches available with the motive to reinvent this philosophy. The expository and dialectical approaches were used to examine the constructive and critical paradigms of contemporary ordinary language philosophy. The data was collected through desk research and documentation search techniques from archives, libraries and research databases. A qualitative data analysis was done of all the data to conclude that ordinary language philosophy contributes to the clarity of philosophical problems, concepts, and expressions used in ordinary language. It is yet not clear whether certain knowledge is intended to be employed in ordinary circumstances. The study recommends that an updated version of ordinary language is needed highlighting the importance of experimental examinations in probing knowledge about meanings.