Frederick C. Beiser
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199691555
- eISBN:
- 9780191731839
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691555.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter is a detailed examination of the intellectual development of Wilhelm von Humboldt's theory of history. It treats Humboldt's shifting intellectual interests as different approaches to the ...
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This chapter is a detailed examination of the intellectual development of Wilhelm von Humboldt's theory of history. It treats Humboldt's shifting intellectual interests as different approaches to the problems of history. Humboldt's classicism, anthropology and philosophy of language are examined insofar as they affect his view of history. The final section is an account of Humboldt's famous essay on the task of the historian. Humboldt is treated as a transitional figure insofar as he belongs to, yet sees beyond, the naturalistic tradition of anthropology.Less
This chapter is a detailed examination of the intellectual development of Wilhelm von Humboldt's theory of history. It treats Humboldt's shifting intellectual interests as different approaches to the problems of history. Humboldt's classicism, anthropology and philosophy of language are examined insofar as they affect his view of history. The final section is an account of Humboldt's famous essay on the task of the historian. Humboldt is treated as a transitional figure insofar as he belongs to, yet sees beyond, the naturalistic tradition of anthropology.
Hans Erich Bödeker
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263822
- eISBN:
- 9780191734960
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263822.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Friedrich Rühs outlined the problems in the complicated relationship between national history and universal history around 1800. The change in theory from universal to national history, from the ...
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Friedrich Rühs outlined the problems in the complicated relationship between national history and universal history around 1800. The change in theory from universal to national history, from the totality to the individual, was not only the result of methodological or intra-disciplinary consistency, but reflected nationalisation. The background was provided by the particular historical experiences of the time around the turn of the century: the French Revolution and, even more, changes in the German states and the impact of Napoleon Bonaparte's rule. The debates about the relationship between universal history and national history began during the heyday of Enlightenment history-writing. The switch from, in simplified terms, ‘Enlightenment history’ to ‘historicism’, it seems, also took place in these debates, which were, for a time, its primary setting. The authors involved were historians, philologists, philosophers, theologians and men of letters; the names ranged from Johann Christoph Gatterer, August Ludwig von Schlözer, and Johann Gottfried Herder to Immanuel Kant, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Leopold von Ranke and Johann Gustav Droysen.Less
Friedrich Rühs outlined the problems in the complicated relationship between national history and universal history around 1800. The change in theory from universal to national history, from the totality to the individual, was not only the result of methodological or intra-disciplinary consistency, but reflected nationalisation. The background was provided by the particular historical experiences of the time around the turn of the century: the French Revolution and, even more, changes in the German states and the impact of Napoleon Bonaparte's rule. The debates about the relationship between universal history and national history began during the heyday of Enlightenment history-writing. The switch from, in simplified terms, ‘Enlightenment history’ to ‘historicism’, it seems, also took place in these debates, which were, for a time, its primary setting. The authors involved were historians, philologists, philosophers, theologians and men of letters; the names ranged from Johann Christoph Gatterer, August Ludwig von Schlözer, and Johann Gottfried Herder to Immanuel Kant, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Leopold von Ranke and Johann Gustav Droysen.
R. D. Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198206606
- eISBN:
- 9780191717307
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206606.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The University of Berlin, founded in 1810 under the influence of Wilhelm von Humboldt, is traditionally seen as the model institution of the 19th century. In fact the German system emerged from ...
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The University of Berlin, founded in 1810 under the influence of Wilhelm von Humboldt, is traditionally seen as the model institution of the 19th century. In fact the German system emerged from innovations both before and after 1810. Its features included the unity of teaching and research, the pursuit of higher learning in the philosophy faculty, freedom of study for students (Lernfreiheit, contrasted with the prescriptive curricula of the French system), the educational ideal of Bildung based on neo-humanist admiration for ancient Greece, corporate autonomy for universities despite their funding by the state, and the notion of academic freedom. The group of reformers in Prussia included philosophers like Fichte and Schleiermacher as well as Humboldt, and Berlin University was a focus of national cultural revival. The German model had a profound influence throughout central, eastern, and northern Europe.Less
The University of Berlin, founded in 1810 under the influence of Wilhelm von Humboldt, is traditionally seen as the model institution of the 19th century. In fact the German system emerged from innovations both before and after 1810. Its features included the unity of teaching and research, the pursuit of higher learning in the philosophy faculty, freedom of study for students (Lernfreiheit, contrasted with the prescriptive curricula of the French system), the educational ideal of Bildung based on neo-humanist admiration for ancient Greece, corporate autonomy for universities despite their funding by the state, and the notion of academic freedom. The group of reformers in Prussia included philosophers like Fichte and Schleiermacher as well as Humboldt, and Berlin University was a focus of national cultural revival. The German model had a profound influence throughout central, eastern, and northern Europe.
Florian Schui
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199593965
- eISBN:
- 9780191750724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593965.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, History of Ideas
The conflicts between civil society and state that were discussed in the previous chapters were influential beyond their immediate political, spatial and chronological context. The conflicts in which ...
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The conflicts between civil society and state that were discussed in the previous chapters were influential beyond their immediate political, spatial and chronological context. The conflicts in which urban Prussian successfully defended their freedom against state interference formed the background against which a young Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote his famous tract On the limits of state action that profoundly influenced the development of liberalism in the modern period. In particular John Stuart Mill was influenced by Humboldt writings but also other European liberals read Humboldt's work and incorporated his arguments in their own arguments. This chapter reconstructs the original historical context of Humboldt's arguments by placing it in the context of the debates that took place in the Prussian public in the second half of the eighteenth century and that have been explored in the preceding chapters. The chapter also place the influence of Humboldt's work in a European context of the development of liberal political thought.Less
The conflicts between civil society and state that were discussed in the previous chapters were influential beyond their immediate political, spatial and chronological context. The conflicts in which urban Prussian successfully defended their freedom against state interference formed the background against which a young Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote his famous tract On the limits of state action that profoundly influenced the development of liberalism in the modern period. In particular John Stuart Mill was influenced by Humboldt writings but also other European liberals read Humboldt's work and incorporated his arguments in their own arguments. This chapter reconstructs the original historical context of Humboldt's arguments by placing it in the context of the debates that took place in the Prussian public in the second half of the eighteenth century and that have been explored in the preceding chapters. The chapter also place the influence of Humboldt's work in a European context of the development of liberal political thought.
Mike Higton
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199643929
- eISBN:
- 9780191738845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199643929.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Religion and Society
This chapter, on the University of Berlin, argues that the Wissenschaftsideologie that surrounded the new university’s creation was, in part, an attempted repair of the broken and disputatious world ...
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This chapter, on the University of Berlin, argues that the Wissenschaftsideologie that surrounded the new university’s creation was, in part, an attempted repair of the broken and disputatious world of Christian learning. That is, the Romantic theorists Wissenschaft appropriated a tradition-specific Christian vision of free, peaceable exchange (the economy of gift and reception in the Body of Christ) and sought to remake the whole world of learning on the basis of that vision. That remaking required, however, that they revise or abandon anything that could not be made to fit with the proper freedom of such peaceable exchange, including the heteronomous commitment of learners to particular traditions of religious thought and practice. The account they provided of the university – indeed, the account they provided of reason itself – was therefore inescapably both theological and anti-theological.Less
This chapter, on the University of Berlin, argues that the Wissenschaftsideologie that surrounded the new university’s creation was, in part, an attempted repair of the broken and disputatious world of Christian learning. That is, the Romantic theorists Wissenschaft appropriated a tradition-specific Christian vision of free, peaceable exchange (the economy of gift and reception in the Body of Christ) and sought to remake the whole world of learning on the basis of that vision. That remaking required, however, that they revise or abandon anything that could not be made to fit with the proper freedom of such peaceable exchange, including the heteronomous commitment of learners to particular traditions of religious thought and practice. The account they provided of the university – indeed, the account they provided of reason itself – was therefore inescapably both theological and anti-theological.
Michael N. Forster
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199604814
- eISBN:
- 9780191809941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199604814.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This chapter provides an account of the origins of the modern science of linguistics. It focuses on the three thinkers — Herder, Friedrich Schlegel, and Wilhelm von Humboldt — who played significant ...
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This chapter provides an account of the origins of the modern science of linguistics. It focuses on the three thinkers — Herder, Friedrich Schlegel, and Wilhelm von Humboldt — who played significant roles in the birth of the new discipline. It was Herder who laid the foundations, and after him it was Friedrich Shlegel who played the most pivotal role. By contrast, Wilhelm von Humboldt's contributions were less fundamental and were counterbalanced by more dubious positions that he adopted. The chapter also discusses the main positive contributions made by Schlegel and subsequently refined by Humboldt. Additionally, it considers two further lines of argument due to Schlegel and especially Humboldt which are of more questionable value.Less
This chapter provides an account of the origins of the modern science of linguistics. It focuses on the three thinkers — Herder, Friedrich Schlegel, and Wilhelm von Humboldt — who played significant roles in the birth of the new discipline. It was Herder who laid the foundations, and after him it was Friedrich Shlegel who played the most pivotal role. By contrast, Wilhelm von Humboldt's contributions were less fundamental and were counterbalanced by more dubious positions that he adopted. The chapter also discusses the main positive contributions made by Schlegel and subsequently refined by Humboldt. Additionally, it considers two further lines of argument due to Schlegel and especially Humboldt which are of more questionable value.
Kristina Mendicino
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823274017
- eISBN:
- 9780823274062
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823274017.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter argues that Wilhelm von Humboldt’s most original insights into the emergence of the word are presented in the preface he appends to his translation of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. There, ...
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This chapter argues that Wilhelm von Humboldt’s most original insights into the emergence of the word are presented in the preface he appends to his translation of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. There, translation and language are considered immediately according to their temporality, and the labor of translation becomes recast in dynamic terms that anticipate his famous definition of language as energeia in his magisterial treatise, On the Diversity of Human Language Structure. When does translation and, by analogy, language itself, emerge—and by what force? Only in addressing this question is it possible to delineate the way in which translations might work upon language at any “given point in time,” along the lines of an incommensurable foreign text, where, as Humboldt puts it, one “can always only set against each utterly proper term a different one” (8: 130). And only through such collisions—which, for Humboldt, make up the structure of the symbol—might a given language be renewed through translation, and give rise to language as it had never hitherto been spoken or written. This is what every translation, according to Humboldt, should promise—which turns out to be not the promise of linguistics, but of Aeschylus’ prophetess, Cassandra.Less
This chapter argues that Wilhelm von Humboldt’s most original insights into the emergence of the word are presented in the preface he appends to his translation of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. There, translation and language are considered immediately according to their temporality, and the labor of translation becomes recast in dynamic terms that anticipate his famous definition of language as energeia in his magisterial treatise, On the Diversity of Human Language Structure. When does translation and, by analogy, language itself, emerge—and by what force? Only in addressing this question is it possible to delineate the way in which translations might work upon language at any “given point in time,” along the lines of an incommensurable foreign text, where, as Humboldt puts it, one “can always only set against each utterly proper term a different one” (8: 130). And only through such collisions—which, for Humboldt, make up the structure of the symbol—might a given language be renewed through translation, and give rise to language as it had never hitherto been spoken or written. This is what every translation, according to Humboldt, should promise—which turns out to be not the promise of linguistics, but of Aeschylus’ prophetess, Cassandra.
HELEN FRONIUS
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199210923
- eISBN:
- 9780191705793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199210923.003.01
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature, European Literature
In 18th-century Germany, gender roles were not yet normative, but in the process of being negotiated. Both men and women played an active part in this process. This chapter describes the development ...
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In 18th-century Germany, gender roles were not yet normative, but in the process of being negotiated. Both men and women played an active part in this process. This chapter describes the development of essentialist definitions of femininity in Germany during the last quarter of the 18th century, taking as its starting point gender discourse, always cited as a primary cause of women's social and literary exclusion. It shows that the 18th-century discussion of the role of the sexes was by no means uniform and monolithic, but rather fragmented and contradictory. The areas and character traits designated as taboo for women were contested, redefined and subtly extended by a variety of authors, thereby leaving lacunae in which women writers might validate their work. The views of Joachim Heinrich Campe, Ernst Brandes, and Wilhelm von Humboldt regarding gender are discussed, along with reflections of gender in German literature.Less
In 18th-century Germany, gender roles were not yet normative, but in the process of being negotiated. Both men and women played an active part in this process. This chapter describes the development of essentialist definitions of femininity in Germany during the last quarter of the 18th century, taking as its starting point gender discourse, always cited as a primary cause of women's social and literary exclusion. It shows that the 18th-century discussion of the role of the sexes was by no means uniform and monolithic, but rather fragmented and contradictory. The areas and character traits designated as taboo for women were contested, redefined and subtly extended by a variety of authors, thereby leaving lacunae in which women writers might validate their work. The views of Joachim Heinrich Campe, Ernst Brandes, and Wilhelm von Humboldt regarding gender are discussed, along with reflections of gender in German literature.
Michael N. Forster
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199604814
- eISBN:
- 9780191809941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199604814.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This chapter focuses on Wilhelm von Humboldt, a founder of linguistics. It provides an overview of Humboldt's life and thought. He knew most of the leading intellectuals of his time personally, ...
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This chapter focuses on Wilhelm von Humboldt, a founder of linguistics. It provides an overview of Humboldt's life and thought. He knew most of the leading intellectuals of his time personally, including Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, Heyne, George Forster, Fichte, Jacobi, and Coleridge. His earliest theoretical statement on language, the short essay On Thinking and Speaking, is strongly influenced by Herder. His mature philosophy of language contains many further borrowings from Herder as well. His intellectual contributions cover several fields, but he deserves to be remembered above all for his work in developing the discipline of linguistics and for his educational and political philosophy. Humboldt holds that language is essential to the very existence of the human being.Less
This chapter focuses on Wilhelm von Humboldt, a founder of linguistics. It provides an overview of Humboldt's life and thought. He knew most of the leading intellectuals of his time personally, including Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, Heyne, George Forster, Fichte, Jacobi, and Coleridge. His earliest theoretical statement on language, the short essay On Thinking and Speaking, is strongly influenced by Herder. His mature philosophy of language contains many further borrowings from Herder as well. His intellectual contributions cover several fields, but he deserves to be remembered above all for his work in developing the discipline of linguistics and for his educational and political philosophy. Humboldt holds that language is essential to the very existence of the human being.
Roger Keys
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151609
- eISBN:
- 9780191672767
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151609.003.0018
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
Andrei Belyi began to study Immanuel Kant in the hope that by juggling around with the terminology of his 20th-century reinterpreters, he would discover a weak spot in the impregnable walls of the ...
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Andrei Belyi began to study Immanuel Kant in the hope that by juggling around with the terminology of his 20th-century reinterpreters, he would discover a weak spot in the impregnable walls of the critical philosophy. He then read another book, Thought and Language by Aleksandr Potebnia. This book introduced him to a range of problems which were not explored in the work of Kant. One of the implications of Kant's analysis had been that human thought, the product of such mental transformation, could render itself directly into language. Wilhelm von Humboldt criticized Kant for this assumption. In his opinion, language was an independent realm lying between the world of exterior phenomena and the inner world of man, an activity in itself and not simply the product of activity. The notion of language as an intersubjective process of human communication as well as of individual self-expression was also fully implicated in Humboldt's system. This was relayed to Belyi through the writings of Potebnia, the chief popularizer and advocate of Humboldt's theories in Russia.Less
Andrei Belyi began to study Immanuel Kant in the hope that by juggling around with the terminology of his 20th-century reinterpreters, he would discover a weak spot in the impregnable walls of the critical philosophy. He then read another book, Thought and Language by Aleksandr Potebnia. This book introduced him to a range of problems which were not explored in the work of Kant. One of the implications of Kant's analysis had been that human thought, the product of such mental transformation, could render itself directly into language. Wilhelm von Humboldt criticized Kant for this assumption. In his opinion, language was an independent realm lying between the world of exterior phenomena and the inner world of man, an activity in itself and not simply the product of activity. The notion of language as an intersubjective process of human communication as well as of individual self-expression was also fully implicated in Humboldt's system. This was relayed to Belyi through the writings of Potebnia, the chief popularizer and advocate of Humboldt's theories in Russia.
Sebastian Matzner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198724278
- eISBN:
- 9780191827495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198724278.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores the impact of the new theory of metonymy on critical practice in various fields. The first of three case studies breaks new ground in translation criticism by assessing what ...
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This chapter explores the impact of the new theory of metonymy on critical practice in various fields. The first of three case studies breaks new ground in translation criticism by assessing what happens to metonymy in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century translations of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon into German (by Jenisch, Humboldt, Droysen, Wilamowitz-Möllendorff) and English (Browning). It renders visible previously unrecognized translation strategies, opens up new dimensions for comparing literary translations, and challenges the conventional ‘foreignization’-versus-‘domestication’ dichotomy. The second case study offers a stylistic assessment of what constitutes the distinctive ‘hellenizing’ style in Housman’s ‘Fragment of a Greek Tragedy’ and Schiller’s The Bride of Messina, highlighting the crucial role metonymy plays in it, while the third offers a critical reappraisal of (post-)structuralist reappropriations of metonymy (by de Man, Lodge, White, and others) in the light of the new insights gained here and formulates parameters for best practice in structuralist analysis and inter-arts criticism.Less
This chapter explores the impact of the new theory of metonymy on critical practice in various fields. The first of three case studies breaks new ground in translation criticism by assessing what happens to metonymy in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century translations of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon into German (by Jenisch, Humboldt, Droysen, Wilamowitz-Möllendorff) and English (Browning). It renders visible previously unrecognized translation strategies, opens up new dimensions for comparing literary translations, and challenges the conventional ‘foreignization’-versus-‘domestication’ dichotomy. The second case study offers a stylistic assessment of what constitutes the distinctive ‘hellenizing’ style in Housman’s ‘Fragment of a Greek Tragedy’ and Schiller’s The Bride of Messina, highlighting the crucial role metonymy plays in it, while the third offers a critical reappraisal of (post-)structuralist reappropriations of metonymy (by de Man, Lodge, White, and others) in the light of the new insights gained here and formulates parameters for best practice in structuralist analysis and inter-arts criticism.
Jennifer A. Herdt
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226618487
- eISBN:
- 9780226618517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226618517.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Chapter 4 shows how Kunstreligion, the Religion of Art, came to be seen as a critical resource for the self-formation of mature humanity (Menschheit). Schiller, Goethe, and Wilhelm von Humboldt ...
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Chapter 4 shows how Kunstreligion, the Religion of Art, came to be seen as a critical resource for the self-formation of mature humanity (Menschheit). Schiller, Goethe, and Wilhelm von Humboldt regarded art as having displaced Christianity’s role in ethical formation. Aesthetic education, they believed, would generate harmony among the opposing forces of the human spirit, effectively resist the instrumentalizing reduction of human persons, fit them for stable self-government, and preclude the revolutionary excesses of the French Revolution. The chapter argues that it was Humboldt’s understanding of Bildung, rather than Herder’s, that became institutionalized within the pedagogical and cultural institutions of later 19th-century bourgeois culture (the Bildungsbürgertum). Within this later context, Bildung came to be equated with a classical liberal education, regarded as a badge of bourgeois nobility and taken an excuse for political passivity. In the tumultuous atmosphere surrounding the French Revolution, however, it was not yet evident how easily liberal individualist Bildung could be politically domesticated.Less
Chapter 4 shows how Kunstreligion, the Religion of Art, came to be seen as a critical resource for the self-formation of mature humanity (Menschheit). Schiller, Goethe, and Wilhelm von Humboldt regarded art as having displaced Christianity’s role in ethical formation. Aesthetic education, they believed, would generate harmony among the opposing forces of the human spirit, effectively resist the instrumentalizing reduction of human persons, fit them for stable self-government, and preclude the revolutionary excesses of the French Revolution. The chapter argues that it was Humboldt’s understanding of Bildung, rather than Herder’s, that became institutionalized within the pedagogical and cultural institutions of later 19th-century bourgeois culture (the Bildungsbürgertum). Within this later context, Bildung came to be equated with a classical liberal education, regarded as a badge of bourgeois nobility and taken an excuse for political passivity. In the tumultuous atmosphere surrounding the French Revolution, however, it was not yet evident how easily liberal individualist Bildung could be politically domesticated.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804757003
- eISBN:
- 9780804779586
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804757003.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) classified languages into families and developed a general linguistic typology. His major theoretical work on language, Über die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen ...
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Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) classified languages into families and developed a general linguistic typology. His major theoretical work on language, Über die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaus und seinen Einfluβ auf die geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts (The Diversity of Human Language-Structure and Its Influence on the Mental Development of Mankind), published in 1836, grounds the emerging field of comparative language study in a pre-Darwinian linguistic structuralism. This chapter explores the scenic imagination in Humboldt's theory of language and in Friedrich Max Müller's originary anthropology, which gives language and religion equal treatment. It also discusses the views of J. F. McLennan (1827–1881), Lewis H. Morgan (1818–1881), Emile Durkheim (1857–1917), Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), René Girard, and Franz Boas.Less
Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) classified languages into families and developed a general linguistic typology. His major theoretical work on language, Über die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaus und seinen Einfluβ auf die geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts (The Diversity of Human Language-Structure and Its Influence on the Mental Development of Mankind), published in 1836, grounds the emerging field of comparative language study in a pre-Darwinian linguistic structuralism. This chapter explores the scenic imagination in Humboldt's theory of language and in Friedrich Max Müller's originary anthropology, which gives language and religion equal treatment. It also discusses the views of J. F. McLennan (1827–1881), Lewis H. Morgan (1818–1881), Emile Durkheim (1857–1917), Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), René Girard, and Franz Boas.
Frank Ankersmit
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450716
- eISBN:
- 9780801463853
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450716.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter contends that the historicism of Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt was formulated in the idealist and romanticist idiom of the 1820s and 1830s, which can no longer satisfy us in ...
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This chapter contends that the historicism of Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt was formulated in the idealist and romanticist idiom of the 1820s and 1830s, which can no longer satisfy us in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Their argument therefore needs to be translated into more contemporary terms. Doing this is a major part of the project in this book. The chapter goes on to discuss historicism and Neo-Kantianism; Richard Rorty's thoughts on Heidegger and Anglo-Saxon philosophy of language; and the tradition of German historicism. It argues that however doubtful the ancestry of the notion of the historical idea may be, it remains indispensable for a proper understanding of the writing of history. It is the legacy of historicism to all later philosophy of history, and the price to be paid for ignoring it is to dream away in scientistic illusions. Universal History and the historical idea should no longer be regarded as the products of speculative thought nor as entities in the past quietly awaiting their historical investigation. Instead, they lead their life only in the domain of historical representation.Less
This chapter contends that the historicism of Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt was formulated in the idealist and romanticist idiom of the 1820s and 1830s, which can no longer satisfy us in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Their argument therefore needs to be translated into more contemporary terms. Doing this is a major part of the project in this book. The chapter goes on to discuss historicism and Neo-Kantianism; Richard Rorty's thoughts on Heidegger and Anglo-Saxon philosophy of language; and the tradition of German historicism. It argues that however doubtful the ancestry of the notion of the historical idea may be, it remains indispensable for a proper understanding of the writing of history. It is the legacy of historicism to all later philosophy of history, and the price to be paid for ignoring it is to dream away in scientistic illusions. Universal History and the historical idea should no longer be regarded as the products of speculative thought nor as entities in the past quietly awaiting their historical investigation. Instead, they lead their life only in the domain of historical representation.
Kristina Mendicino
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823274017
- eISBN:
- 9780823274062
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823274017.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The scenes of Babel and Pentecost, the original confusion of tongues and their redemption through translation, haunt German Romanticism and Idealism. This book retraces the ways in which the task of ...
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The scenes of Babel and Pentecost, the original confusion of tongues and their redemption through translation, haunt German Romanticism and Idealism. This book retraces the ways in which the task of translation, so crucial to the literature and philosophy of Romanticism, is repeatedly tied to prophecy, not in the sense of telling future events, but in the sense of speaking in the place of another—most often unbeknownst to the speaker herself. In prophecy, in other words, the confusion of tongues repeats, each time anew, and prophecy means, first of all, speaking in more than one voice—and more than one tongue—at once, unpredictably. This book argues that the relation between translation and prophecy drawn by German Romantic writers fundamentally changes the way we must approach this so-called “Age of Translation.” Instead of taking as its point of departure the opposition of the familiar and the foreign, this book suggests that Romantic writing provokes the questions: how could one read a language that is not one? And what would such a polyvocal, polyglot language, have to say about philology—both for the Romantics, whose translation projects are most intimately related to their philological preoccupations, and for us? Through careful readings of major texts by G.W.F. Hegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Friedrich Schlegel, and Friedrich Hölderlin, this book proposes a version of philology that does not take language as a given but rather attends to language as it pushes against the limits of what can be said.Less
The scenes of Babel and Pentecost, the original confusion of tongues and their redemption through translation, haunt German Romanticism and Idealism. This book retraces the ways in which the task of translation, so crucial to the literature and philosophy of Romanticism, is repeatedly tied to prophecy, not in the sense of telling future events, but in the sense of speaking in the place of another—most often unbeknownst to the speaker herself. In prophecy, in other words, the confusion of tongues repeats, each time anew, and prophecy means, first of all, speaking in more than one voice—and more than one tongue—at once, unpredictably. This book argues that the relation between translation and prophecy drawn by German Romantic writers fundamentally changes the way we must approach this so-called “Age of Translation.” Instead of taking as its point of departure the opposition of the familiar and the foreign, this book suggests that Romantic writing provokes the questions: how could one read a language that is not one? And what would such a polyvocal, polyglot language, have to say about philology—both for the Romantics, whose translation projects are most intimately related to their philological preoccupations, and for us? Through careful readings of major texts by G.W.F. Hegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Friedrich Schlegel, and Friedrich Hölderlin, this book proposes a version of philology that does not take language as a given but rather attends to language as it pushes against the limits of what can be said.
Frank Ankersmit
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450716
- eISBN:
- 9780801463853
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450716.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This book provides a systematic account of the problems of reference, truth, and meaning in historical writing. It works from the conviction that the historicist account of historical writing, ...
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This book provides a systematic account of the problems of reference, truth, and meaning in historical writing. It works from the conviction that the historicist account of historical writing, associated primarily with Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt, is essentially correct but that its original idealist and romanticist idiom needs to be translated into more modern terms. Rehabilitating historicism for the contemporary philosophy of history, the book argues, “reveals the basic truths about the nature of the past itself, how we relate to it, and how we make sense of the past in historical writing.” At the heart of the book is a sharp distinction between interpretation and representation. The historical text is first and foremost a representation of some part of the past, not an interpretation. The book's central chapters address the concept of historical representation from the perspectives of reference, truth, and meaning. The book then goes on to discuss the possible role of experience in the history writing, which leads directly to a consideration of subjectivity and ethics in the historian's practice. The book concludes with a chapter on political history, which is the “basis and condition of all other variants of historical writing.” The book's rehabilitation of historicism is a powerfully original and provocative contribution to the debate about the nature of historical writing.Less
This book provides a systematic account of the problems of reference, truth, and meaning in historical writing. It works from the conviction that the historicist account of historical writing, associated primarily with Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt, is essentially correct but that its original idealist and romanticist idiom needs to be translated into more modern terms. Rehabilitating historicism for the contemporary philosophy of history, the book argues, “reveals the basic truths about the nature of the past itself, how we relate to it, and how we make sense of the past in historical writing.” At the heart of the book is a sharp distinction between interpretation and representation. The historical text is first and foremost a representation of some part of the past, not an interpretation. The book's central chapters address the concept of historical representation from the perspectives of reference, truth, and meaning. The book then goes on to discuss the possible role of experience in the history writing, which leads directly to a consideration of subjectivity and ethics in the historian's practice. The book concludes with a chapter on political history, which is the “basis and condition of all other variants of historical writing.” The book's rehabilitation of historicism is a powerfully original and provocative contribution to the debate about the nature of historical writing.
Michael N. Forster
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199604814
- eISBN:
- 9780191809941
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199604814.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
The author presents a ground-breaking study of German philosophy of language in the nineteenth century (and beyond). His previous book, After Herder, showed that the eighteenth-century philosopher J. ...
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The author presents a ground-breaking study of German philosophy of language in the nineteenth century (and beyond). His previous book, After Herder, showed that the eighteenth-century philosopher J. G. Herder played the fundamental role in founding modern philosophy of language, including new theories of interpretation (‘hermeneutics’) and translation, as well as in establishing such whole new disciplines concerned with language as anthropology and linguistics. This new volume reveals that Herder's ideas continued to have a profound impact on such important nineteenth-century thinkers as Friedrich Schlegel (the leading German Romantic), Wilhelm von Humboldt (a founder of linguistics), and G. W. F. Hegel (the leading German Idealist). The author shows that the most valuable ideas about language in this tradition were continuous with Herder's, whereas deviations from the latter that occurred tended to be inferior. This book not only sets the historical record straight but also champions the Herderian tradition for its philosophical depth and breadth.Less
The author presents a ground-breaking study of German philosophy of language in the nineteenth century (and beyond). His previous book, After Herder, showed that the eighteenth-century philosopher J. G. Herder played the fundamental role in founding modern philosophy of language, including new theories of interpretation (‘hermeneutics’) and translation, as well as in establishing such whole new disciplines concerned with language as anthropology and linguistics. This new volume reveals that Herder's ideas continued to have a profound impact on such important nineteenth-century thinkers as Friedrich Schlegel (the leading German Romantic), Wilhelm von Humboldt (a founder of linguistics), and G. W. F. Hegel (the leading German Idealist). The author shows that the most valuable ideas about language in this tradition were continuous with Herder's, whereas deviations from the latter that occurred tended to be inferior. This book not only sets the historical record straight but also champions the Herderian tradition for its philosophical depth and breadth.
Patrick Hanks
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262018579
- eISBN:
- 9780262312851
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018579.003.0012
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter examines the theory of norms and exploitations in the context of other theories of language. It considers the role of the lexicon in linguistic theory in twentieth-century Europe since ...
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This chapter examines the theory of norms and exploitations in the context of other theories of language. It considers the role of the lexicon in linguistic theory in twentieth-century Europe since Wilhelm von Humboldt and Ferdinand de Saussure, and also discusses generative linguistics, cognitive linguistics, frame semantics, and construction grammar. Moreover, the chapter looks at the Firthian tradition that paved the way for the newly emerging science of corpus-driven empirical linguistics and lexicology, as well as electronic lexicography.Less
This chapter examines the theory of norms and exploitations in the context of other theories of language. It considers the role of the lexicon in linguistic theory in twentieth-century Europe since Wilhelm von Humboldt and Ferdinand de Saussure, and also discusses generative linguistics, cognitive linguistics, frame semantics, and construction grammar. Moreover, the chapter looks at the Firthian tradition that paved the way for the newly emerging science of corpus-driven empirical linguistics and lexicology, as well as electronic lexicography.
Michael N. Forster
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199604814
- eISBN:
- 9780191809941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199604814.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This introductory chapter explores the real beginnings of modern philosophy of language. It focuses on Friedrich Schlegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and G. W. F Hegel. These thinkers were deeply ...
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This introductory chapter explores the real beginnings of modern philosophy of language. It focuses on Friedrich Schlegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and G. W. F Hegel. These thinkers were deeply interested in the following: the extent of linguistic-conceptual variation across historical periods and cultures; the nature of interpretation, and how to accomplish it; the nature of translation, and how to accomplish it; the nature of expression in non-linguistic arts like painting, sculpture, and music, and how to interpret it; and the role of genre in both linguistic and non-linguistic art. This chapter also discusses a number of controversial historical claims, including the claim that it was the eighteenth-century philosopher J. G. Herder who played the most fundamental role within the earlier German tradition.Less
This introductory chapter explores the real beginnings of modern philosophy of language. It focuses on Friedrich Schlegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and G. W. F Hegel. These thinkers were deeply interested in the following: the extent of linguistic-conceptual variation across historical periods and cultures; the nature of interpretation, and how to accomplish it; the nature of translation, and how to accomplish it; the nature of expression in non-linguistic arts like painting, sculpture, and music, and how to interpret it; and the role of genre in both linguistic and non-linguistic art. This chapter also discusses a number of controversial historical claims, including the claim that it was the eighteenth-century philosopher J. G. Herder who played the most fundamental role within the earlier German tradition.
Watsuji Tetsurō
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824834609
- eISBN:
- 9780824870546
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824834609.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter examines, from the perspective of intellectual history, the interpretation of a fundamental aspect of the spiritual activity of an ethnicity via the Japanese language. This enquiry is ...
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This chapter examines, from the perspective of intellectual history, the interpretation of a fundamental aspect of the spiritual activity of an ethnicity via the Japanese language. This enquiry is premised on the fact that an intellectually historical world that must be approached through understanding is expressed by a genuine language. As Wilhelm von Humboldt pointed out, the spiritual peculiarities of an ethnicity and linguistic formations are intimately connected: if one is given, the other can be sufficiently derived from it. The question of specificity was an object of great interest to Humboldt, who made “linguistic differences” the theme of his linguistic research. According to him, language was the outside appearance of the spirit of a people. The question of specificity was inevitably connected with the metaphysics of history.Less
This chapter examines, from the perspective of intellectual history, the interpretation of a fundamental aspect of the spiritual activity of an ethnicity via the Japanese language. This enquiry is premised on the fact that an intellectually historical world that must be approached through understanding is expressed by a genuine language. As Wilhelm von Humboldt pointed out, the spiritual peculiarities of an ethnicity and linguistic formations are intimately connected: if one is given, the other can be sufficiently derived from it. The question of specificity was an object of great interest to Humboldt, who made “linguistic differences” the theme of his linguistic research. According to him, language was the outside appearance of the spirit of a people. The question of specificity was inevitably connected with the metaphysics of history.
