Study of The Quality of Expression and Meaning In Arab and Western Thought

The issues in ancient Arabic criticism are multiple and unique, and have generated much ink, and their topics are still fertile for research and study. Perhaps the issue of word and meaning - the subject of this research - remains one of the most important problems or issues that have occupied Arab critics. This is due to the difference in viewpoints that has occurred around it between those who are fanatical about wording and argue for it, and those who see nothing but meaning as something worthy of interest, and a third group in the middle, trying to reconcile the first opinion with the second opinion. The issue of word and meaning is not only an Arab issue, but a human issue; such that we cannot date it to the emergence of Arabic rhetoric; rather, it is the issue that had a presence in Western thought, and Greek thought in particular, represented in the philosophy of both Plato and Aristotle, according to what some books have transmitted. As for the internal aspect, the issue dates back in its first appearance to the theological sects; from the Ash'aris, the Mu'tazila and the Jahmites..., and the story of distinguishing between the Qur'an, which is in our hands, and psychological speech, especially with the Ash'aris.