Meaning, Language, and Time: Toward a Consequentialist Philosophy of Discourse

MEANING, LANGUAGE, AND TIME: TOWARD A CONSEQUENTIALIST PHILOSOPHY OF DISCOURSE is concerned with the interanimations of meaning, time, language, and discourse. The chief target of critique is meaning apriorism, the notion that the meaning of an utterance (or sign) is always found in or traceable to something temporally and logically prior, such as intention. In opposition, Porter proposes meaning consequentialism, a theory that integrates meaning and time in terms of its consequences. Given the history of concepts like meaning, time, language, and discourse, any serious attempt to understand them must be interdisciplinary; so MEANING, LANGUAGE, AND TIME draws on a wide range of important work in the history of philosophy, rhetoric, and composition. In this groundbreaking work, Porter joins these conversations with the aim of breaching the traditional disciplinary walls and opening new areas of inquiry. KEVIN J. PORTER (PhD, Wisconsin) is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he teaches courses in rhetoric and composition with an emphasis on its collisions and collusions with critical theory, hermeneutics, literary theory, philosophy, and semiotics. His essays have appeared in, among other places, College Composition and Communication, College English, Cultural Critique, JAC, and SubStance.