Kant on Language and the (Self‐)Development of Reason
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Huaping Lu-Adler
Abstract
The origin of languages was a hotly debated topic in the eighteenth century. This paper reconstructs a distinctively Kantian account according to which the origination, progression, and diversification of languages is at bottom reason’s self-development under certain a priori constraints and external environments. The reconstruction builds on three sets of materials. The first is Herder’s famous prize essay on the origin of languages. The second includes Kant’s explicit remarks about language – especially his notion of “transcendental grammar,” his argument that language cannot be innate, his contrast of “Oriental” symbolic (intuitive) and “Occidental” discursive languages, and his treatment of the latter as a sine qua non of humanity’s cultural and moral progress. The third includes the concepts that we need to make sense of those remarks, such as Kant’s epigenetic theory of biological formation and his account of categories as originally acquired.
Bibliography
All translations are quoted from The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant (1996) and the quotation rules followed are those established by the Akademie Ausgabe. Kant, Immanuel (1900 ff): Gesammelte Schriften. Hrsg.: Bd. 1 – 22 Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bd. 23 Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, ab Bd. 24 Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Berlin.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titlepages
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Kant’s Transcendental Theory of Universal Grammar. The Cognitive Foundation of the Structure of Language
- Kant’s Semiotics and Hermeneutics in the 1760s
- Kant on First-Person Speech and Personhood
- Kantian Thoughts. Towards an Alternative to Russellian and Fregean Propositions
- Kant on Language and the (Self‐)Development of Reason
- Kant on Language, Communication and Objective Judgment
- Kant’s Philosophy of Language of Philosophy: On Philosophical Terminology
- Kant on Propositional Content and Knowledge
- Topics of the Kant Yearbook 2024, 2025 and 2026
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titlepages
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Kant’s Transcendental Theory of Universal Grammar. The Cognitive Foundation of the Structure of Language
- Kant’s Semiotics and Hermeneutics in the 1760s
- Kant on First-Person Speech and Personhood
- Kantian Thoughts. Towards an Alternative to Russellian and Fregean Propositions
- Kant on Language and the (Self‐)Development of Reason
- Kant on Language, Communication and Objective Judgment
- Kant’s Philosophy of Language of Philosophy: On Philosophical Terminology
- Kant on Propositional Content and Knowledge
- Topics of the Kant Yearbook 2024, 2025 and 2026