Modèles épistémologiques pour le métalangage

Abstract

We will first remind the development of three ways of conceiving the relation between language and meta-language in twentieth century logic and philosophy of language. These are the model of a single language which cannot tell its own forms (Wittgenstein), the model of a hierarchy of meta-languages (Tarski, Carnap) and the model of reversible meta-linguistic relations (Quine). The last model shifts the question of meta-language unto the question of translation. Taking in account this shift and on the ground of Michel Serres’ work, we will then offer some elements of a critical reflection on the notion of “meta” as well as on the epistemological status of such meta-speeches or meta-sciences as philosophy or semiology sometimes claim to be.

Keywords

• epistemology
• meta-language
• self-reference
• translation