History of Philosophy of Language

The history of the philosophy of language goes back to antiquity. At present, the philosophy of language has been enjoying the latest Begriffsschrift of Frege renewed attention. In connection with the resurgence of interest in it is called the philosophy of language issues also from a "linguistic turn" ( linguistic turn ). The history of the philosophy of language has points of contact with the history of linguistics .

Antiquity

An important early testimony to the preoccupation with the language is the Platonic dialogue Kratylos , which dates back to around the year 360 BC. Dated. The question of the dialogue is whether the designations for the things in the world come from them by nature (φυσει) or through arbitrary positing (θεσει). The dialogue ends in an aporia that leads to the Platonic doctrine of ideas . Plato's theory of ideas leads to the problem of predication : How do the individual things relate to the universals ?

Aristotle continues with the linguistic-philosophical investigations and develops propositional logic .

The Stoics have continued to deal with propositional logic and developed a calculus for propositional logic. The work of Chrysipp was trend- setting .

middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, philosophers like Abelardus and Duns Scotus undertook logical and linguistic-philosophical investigations. William von Ockham developed nominalism (see Universities dispute ).

Modern times

Originally entitled grammaire générale et raisonnée by the authors Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot , the work better known under the name of Port-Royal's Grammar and published in 1660 reflects the impact of rationalism (cf. Descartes ) on the study of language. On the basis of the languages Greek, Latin and French , the grammar of Port Royal tries to develop logic- obeying, universally valid structures for all languages. The grammar thus makes a universalistic claim. Where the examined natural languages deviate from the logical (regular) structure, they are criticized.

In addition, the grammar offers a rudimentary distinction between surface and deep structure, which is reminiscent of the distinction in generative grammar. The deep structure can be identified with the above-mentioned, generally applicable linguistic laws that obey logic. Noam Chomsky himself cites Port Royal's grammar as a precursor and early relative of his own theories.

Karl-Otto Apel has in the idea of the language in the tradition of humanism from Dante to Vico (Apel 1980) four large "traditional flows" a distinction that lead to linguistic philosophy of modern times:

the nominalism in connection to William of Ockham - "This is the course has become conception of language as a sign system that is subsequently assigned the primary preverbal 'given' (or constituted 'world)." (Apel 1980, 19) Descartes, Leibniz and Kant also remain dependent on the nominalistic concept of sign.
the "Logosmystik" - a tradition that extends from Meister Eckhart to Jakob Böhme and Nikolaus von Kues to Johann Georg Hamann
linguistic humanism, which can be traced back from Giambattista Vico via Dante to ancient rhetoric (Cicero) and
the mathesis universalis

This construction offers at least three advantages:

The language concept of the Vienna Circle and the early Wittgenstein, which appears in other representations almost out of nowhere, appears to have become historical, namely as a "synthesis of the nominalistic language criticism and the art of drawing 'mathesis universalis'"
It turns out that the 'German' tradition of the philosophy of language (Hamann, Humboldt, Heidegger), which emphasizes the world-revealing, not merely indicative power of language and the different world views given by the diversity of languages, its prerequisites in Logosmystics and in linguistic humanism Has
an epistemologically shortened view of the history of philosophy, in which "language" only appears as a topic among others, is overcome. Rationalism and empiricism are dependent on the nominalistic concept of sign.

Twentieth century

With the development of modern logic by Gottlob Frege, the philosophy of language established itself as an independent discipline. There was tremendous progress in the twentieth century. A good overview is provided by: Jason Stanley , Philosophy of Language in the Twentieth Century , and Tom Baldwin 2006 (see below ).

literature

Karl-Otto Apel : The idea of language in the tradition of humanism from Dante to Vico , Bonn: Bouvier Verlag, 3rd edition 1980
H. Arens: Linguistics . The course of their development from antiquity to the present, Munich 1955.
Tom Baldwin: Philosophy of Language in the Twentieth Century. In: Ernest Lepore & Barry Smith (Eds.): Oxford Handbook to Language. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006, pp. 60-99.
Tilman Borsche (Hrsg.): Classics of the philosophy of language. From Platon to Noam Chomsky, Munich: CH Beck, paperback edition 2002, ISBN 3406472435 .
G. Bossong: Linguistics and Philosophy of Language in Romania . From the beginning to August Wilhelm Schlegel, Tübingen 1990.
Noam Chomsky : Cartesian Linguistics . A Chapter in the History of Rationalism, trans. by Richard Kruse, Tübingen 1971.
Eugenio Coseriu : History of the Philosophy of Language. From the beginning to Rousseau. UTB, 2003, ISBN 3-8252-2266-7 .
Eugenio Coseriu : History of the Philosophy of Language from Antiquity to the Present , authorized postscript by Gunter Narr of a lecture given in the winter semester 1970/71 at the University of Tübingen (Tübingen Contributions to Linguistics), Tübingen 1972.
Umberto Eco : The search for the perfect language , transl. by Burkhart Kroeber, Munich 1994.
A. Gardt: Language reflection in the baroque and early enlightenment. Drafts from Böhme to Leibniz (sources and research on the linguistic and cultural history of the Germanic peoples 108, 232), Berlin-New York 1994.
P. Juliard: Philosophies of Language in Eighteenth-Century France , The Hague 1970.
JJ Katz: Philosophy of Language , trans. by R. Kruse, Frankfurt / M. 1969.
EFK Koerner / RE Asher (eds.): Concise History of the Language Sciences from the Sumerians to the Cognitivists , Oxford 1995.
Burkhard Mojsisch (Ed.): Philosophy of Language in Antiquity and the Middle Ages , Amsterdam 1986.
H. Parret (Ed.): History of Linguistic Thought and Contemporary Linguistics , Berlin-New York 1976.
U. Ricken: Grammaire et philosophie au siècle des Lumières . Controverses sur l'ordre naturel et la clarté du français, Lille 1978.
U. Ricken: Language, Anthropology, Philosophy in the French Enlightenment . A contribution to the history of the relationship between language theory and worldview, Berlin 1984.
U. Ricken: Language theory and worldview in the European Enlightenment . On the history of language theories of the 18th century and their European reception after the French Revolution, Berlin 1990.
P. Schmitter (Ed.): History of Language Theory , Tübingen 1996.
Jason Stanley : Philosophy of Language in the Twentieth Century , published in Vorber. in: Routledge Guide to Twentieth Century Philosophy ( Draft ; PDF; 389 kB)
Jürgen Trabant : European language thinking: From Plato to Wittgenstein , Munich: CH Beck, 2006

Web links

Gleichsatz.de - On the history of critical thinking