Abstract:

In this article, as opposed to the solipsistic claim that meaning is only in one’s own experience, we attempt to establish a connection between the concepts of historical/social a priori in contemporary French philosophy and the concepts of ahd zihnî/hâricî in the classical Arabic grammar in the context of prepositions. The purpose we have in establishing such a connection is to investigate the possibility of a meaningful connection between the two concepts that we consider to be related to each other. Besides, we have not seen any attempt of establishing such connection between the said couple of concepts in any study. We also aim to support, by means of these two concepts in question, the claim that meaning has essentially a historical and social character. We also attempt to establish a relationship between the ahd zihnî (a type of mental consensus) we consider to be against solipsism and the language games, family resemblances and life forms of Ludwig Wittgenstein. In accordance with that, as we will show in the article, we argue that words do not have a universal and historical significance other than language games, and that language games provide an ahd zihnî (a mental consensus) about language. The reconciliation here is not a mere intellectual reconciliation, but an agreement about lifestyles.

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