August Schleicher and Materialism in 19th-Century Linguistics

Bibliographic Data

ID3955083
AuthorsJames Mcelvenny (0000-0003-0141-4275, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume45
Issue1-2
Pages133-152
Publication date2018-06-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistoriographia Linguistica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0302-5160 • E-ISSN: 1569-9781
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/hl.00018.mce
OpenAlexW2802585905
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited13

Towards the end of his career, August Schleicher (1821-1868), the great consolidator of Indo-European historical-comparative linguistics in the mid-19th century, famously drew explicit parallels between linguistics and the new evolutionary theory of Darwinism. Based on this, it has become customary in linguistic historiography to refer to Schleicher's 'Darwinian' theory of language, even though it has long been established that Schleicher's views have other origins that pre-date his contact with Darwinism. For his contemporary critics in Germany, however, Schleicher's thinking was an example not of Darwinism but of 'materialism'. This article examines what 'materialism' meant in 19th-century Germany - its philosophical as well as its political dimensions - and looks at why Schleicher's critics applied this label to him. It analyses the relevant aspects of Schleicher's linguistics and philosophy of science and the criticisms directed against them by H. Steinthal (1823-1899). It then discusses the contemporary movement of scientific materialism and shows how Schleicher's political views, social background and personal experiences bound him to this movement

Darwinism · Epistemology · Historiography · Materialism · Political science · Classical Studies and Philology · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Law · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Philosophy

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