Language and enlightenment : the Berlin debates of the eighteenth century / Avi Lifschitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lifschitz, Avi.

Series:

Oxford Historical Monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Enlightenment--Germany--Berlin.

Enlightenment.

Prussia (Germany)--History--Frederick II, 1740-1786.

Prussia (Germany).

Prussia (Germany)--Intellectual life--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (244 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This text highlights the importance of language in the social theory, epistemology, and aesthetics of the Enlightenment. It argues that awareness of the historicity and linguistic rootedness of all forms of life was a mainstream Enlightenment notion rather than a feature of the so-called 'Counter-Enlightenment'.

Contents:

Cover; Table of Contents; Note on citations; Introduction; 1. The Mutual Emergence of Language, Mind, and Society: An Enlightenment Debate; No Name-Givers: Ancient Epicureans on the Emergence of Language; After the Deluge: How to Marry Epicurus and Genesis; Between Nature and Artifice: The Trouble with Epicurus; Passionate Speech: Reinterpreting Descartes on Language; Signs of What? The Crisis of Sensualist Epistemology; 2. Symbolic Cognition from Leibniz to the 1760s: Theology, Aesthetics, and History; Leibniz, Wolff, and Pufendorf; Leibniz on confused ideas and symbolic knowledge

Leibniz on natural languages and the vernacularWolff on signs and cognition; Pufendorf and the role of natural law; Halle, Göttingen, and Berlin; Reason and language in the Wertheim Bible; An aesthetic response to the rationalist challenge; Siegmund Jacob Baumgarten: Pietism, history, and Wolffian philosophy; Semler and Neology; Academic history: the beginnings of the Göttingen School; 'Popular philosophers' probing language and method; 3. The Evolution and Genius of Language: Debates in the Berlin Academy; Institutional Preliminaries; Debating Language; La Mettrie's barren suggestion

Maupertuis after CondillacResponses to Rousseau's conundrums; The genius and politics of language; The prize question for 1759; 4. J. D. Michaelis on Language and Vowel Points: From Confessional Controversy to Naturalism; Prelude: In Defence of the Ancient Vowel Points; Sacred Poetry without Vowels: English Encounters; From Göttingen to Arabia: Research and Discovery; Ancient Legislation: The Case of the Hebrews; Natural Evolution: The Case of Hebrew; 5. A Point of Convergence and New Departures: The 1759 Contest on Language and Opinions; Academic Arrangements and Expectations

Origins versus Mutual Influence: Replies to the Prize QuestionLanguage as a Democracy: Michaelis's Prize Essay; The Labyrinth of Language: Responses to the Prize Essay; 6. Language and Cultural Identity: The Controversy over Prémontval's Préservatif; How to Germanize Oneself: Prémontval's Préservatif; Freedom of the Press and Academic Manners; Fatalism and Providence, Content and Form; Group Identities between French and German; 7. Tackling the Naturalistic Conundrum: Instincts and Conjectural History to 1771; Language, Method, and the Animal-Human Boundary

Historical Evolution from Unknown Origins: Abbt, Herder and SulzerNaturalism and Instincts in the 1771 Contest; 8. Conclusion and a Glimpse into the Future; Bibliography; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; R; S; T; U; V; W

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on Oct. 31, 2012).

ISBN:

0-19-108658-4

0-19-877764-7

1-283-63952-1

0-19-163775-0

OCLC:

812300865