03.03.2023, 10:30-Linguistic materialism in the eighteenth century: Charles de Brosses between the Traité and the Grand Archéologue

Lesson module “Reading the classics”

In person lesson
Classroom 13, second floor, building D3

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Abstract
Charles de Brosses (1709-1777), before publishing his Traité de la formation méchanique des langues, expounded his theory on language formation in two lectures. The spread of his theories reveals the aim of his research and findings on the nature of the ‘sign’. At the centre of the reflection is the primacy of the sign over ideas that derives from the theses of Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, who, in his Essai sur l’origine des connoissances humaines of 1746, identifies language as the true matrix of the spirit and thus of all its manifestations. In his Traité de Brosses demonstrates the materialistic nature of language. The model he proposes is based on a universal concept of language that brings him closer to the linguists who would succeed him, as he argues that the primitive word would constitute the unifying element of human experience and knowledge. This would explain that the universality of the word, regardless of geographical latitude, is justified by the fact that its basic identities, lexicon and grammar, are closely interdependent on the organisation of the world. The differentiation of languages represents, consequently, the crisis of human unity. Geographical diversity breaks the primordial equilibrium by replacing it with hatred, racism, division.

Speaker
Rosario Pellegrino
University of Salerno

Coordinator
Rosario Pellegrino
University of Salerno