Wilhelm von Humboldt's Linguistic Ideology: The Problem of Pluralism and the Absolute Difference of National Character: Or, Where Do the Jews Fit in?

Grossman, Jeffrey A.

doi:10.2307/1432328

German Studies Review

1997

DOI: 10.2307/1432328

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Wilhelm von Humboldt's Linguistic Ideology: The Problem of Pluralism and the Absolute Difference of National Character: Or, Where Do the Jews Fit in?

Jeffrey A. Grossman¹

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Cited by 5 publications

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Of Basques, Greeks, and Germans: Liberalism, Nationalism, and the Ancient Republican Tradition in the Thought of Wilhelm von Humboldt

Vick

2007

Cent Eur Hist

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The relationships between German intellectuals and politics at the turn of the nineteenth century have been much debated, with the nature of the German liberal tradition at the core of controversy, and with questions about the interconnections between liberalism, nationalism, and neohumanistBildungcircling not far beyond that core. Prominent in such discussions stands the figure of the Prussian scholar and statesman Wilhelm von Humboldt. Best known today variously for his part in overhauling the Prussian educational system during the “reform era” of Chancellors Stein and Hardenberg, or for helping to establish the disciplines of classical philology and comparative linguistics, Humboldt also authored one of the seminal texts in the European liberal tradition and was actively involved in the diplomacy, constitutional planning, and nationalist upheaval surrounding Napoleon's expulsion from Germany and the subsequent construction of the German Confederation.

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Of Basques, Greeks, and Germans: Liberalism, Nationalism, and the Ancient Republican Tradition in the Thought of Wilhelm von Humboldt

Vick

2007

Cent Eur Hist

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A matter of consequenz

Joseph

1999

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Summary Accusations of ‘racialism’ against Wilhelm von Humboldt’s (1767–1835) theory of language have been based in large measure on remarks in Humboldt (1836) concerning the inferiority of Chinese as an organ of thought. His other comments asserting its excellence are either marginalised or used to suggest that his account of the language is incoherent and irrational. However, when read in the context of the work in which they were originally formulated, Humboldt’s 1826 letter to the Sinologist J.-P. Abel-Rémusat (1788–1832), their coherence becomes apparent. Reacting to a polarisation between Sinologists and Sanskritists in the Société Asiatique of Paris, he rises to the challenge put to him by Rémusat to solve the paradox of how, if synthetic, inflecting languages are to be credited with the development of higher thought, Chinese, the ultimate analytic language, could have produced one of the world’s great civilisations. Humboldt conducts his enquiry in the classical form of a thesis, largely corresponding to Rémusat’s views of the superiority of Chinese; an antithesis, corresponding in part to the strong view of the inferiority of Chinese put forward by Rémusat’s student Eugène Burnouf (1801–1852); and a synthesis, which locates the excellence of Chinese in the realm of ideas and that of the inflecting languages in the realm of thought, then explains how it is that Chinese acquired a structural defect and subsequently turned it into an advantage.

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Speech and Blood: Victor Klemperer's Tagebücher , 1933-45: Review Essay

Birken¹

1998

sho

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Wilhelm von Humboldt's Linguistic Ideology: The Problem of Pluralism and the Absolute Difference of National Character: Or, Where Do the Jews Fit in?

Cited by 5 publications

References 1 publication

Of Basques, Greeks, and Germans: Liberalism, Nationalism, and the Ancient Republican Tradition in the Thought of Wilhelm von Humboldt

Of Basques, Greeks, and Germans: Liberalism, Nationalism, and the Ancient Republican Tradition in the Thought of Wilhelm von Humboldt

A matter of consequenz

Speech and Blood: Victor Klemperer's Tagebücher , 1933-45: Review Essay

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