Every philosophical involvement with language centres on the notion of representation. There is controversy over what language represents. The answers can be classified and used as a basis for a systematic survey: 1. Language represents the world.2. Language does not represent the world but our ideas of the world.3. Language represents our ideas (of the world) badly.4. Language not only represents badly; it does not represent anything.5. Without language there would be no representation of a higher order and thus no thought. The main intention behind this introduction to linguistic philosophy lies in revealing the underlying ordering principle for the many simultaneous and non-simultaneous attempts at a philosophy of language.
