Linguistic turn

The linguistic turn was a major development in Western philosophy during the early 20th century, the most important characteristic of which is the focusing of philosophy primarily on the relations between language, language users, and the world.

The Linguistic Turn constitutes a significant component of the radical critiques that began to dominate debates in historical thought from the 1970s onward, challenging the fundamental assumptions of modern historiography. This approach emphasizes the central role of language and discourse in the formation of societies, asserting that social structures are not fixed determinants of a culture or community but rather products linguistically constructed by a communicative collective.

Very different intellectual movements were associated with the "linguistic turn", although the term itself is commonly thought to have been popularised by Richard Rorty's 1967 anthology The Linguistic Turn, in which he discusses the turn towards linguistic philosophy. According to Rorty, who later dissociated himself from linguistic philosophy and analytic philosophy generally, the phrase "the linguistic turn" originated with philosopher Gustav Bergmann.