Salomon Maimon and the Metaphorical Nature of Language

Lucie Pargačová

doi:10.33134/eeja.58

Abstract

This article is concerned with the metaphorical nature of language in the conception of Salomon Maimon (1753–1800), one of the most distinctive figures of post-Kantian philosophy. He was continuously challenging the theories that attributed a metaphorical character to language, which were widespread in eighteenth-century British, French, and German philosophy. Particularly notable was his attack on Johann Georg Sulzer (1720–1779). The core of the dispute concerned different views on the relationship between the sphere of the senses and the sphere of the intellect. Whereas Sulzer understood them simply as analogical, Maimon dissolved the disparity, convinced that each stems, albeit separately, from the transcendental activity of consciousness. He applied this method of argumentation also in essays on literal meaning and figurative meaning.

Highlights

This article is concerned with the metaphorical nature of language in the conception of Salomon Maimon (1753–1800), one of the most distinctive figures of post-Kantian philosophy
He was continuously challenging the theories that attributed a metaphorical character to language, which were widespread in eighteenth-century British, French, and German philosophy. Notable was his attack on Johann Georg Sulzer (1720–1779)
Dieser herausragende Vertreter post-kantianischer Philosophie polemisierte wiederholt mit in der britischen, französischen und deutschen Philosophie des 18

Summary

LUCIE PARGAČOVÁ

This article is concerned with the metaphorical nature of language in the conception of Salomon Maimon (1753–1800), one of the most distinctive figures of post-Kantian philosophy. They are transcendental expressions, representing both sensory and non-sensory objects (or the status of sensory or non-sensory is irrelevant to meaning, since the predicate is always the same), and they cannot be considered tropes Theories such as Sulzer’s, according to which abstract words are dead metaphors, ensue from the conception that in the history of human development the sensible representations and concepts (from the point of view of our consciousness) chronologically precede the intellectual ones. Maimon viewed language as a system not of representations of things, but of non-pictorial abstractions and conceptual signs created on the basis of conceptual identity, devoid of content.30 With this term he abandoned the Enlightenment represenational theory of language, and declared the scepticism (started by Kant’s transcendental philosophy) about the possibility that a linguistic sign could represent objective reality Maimon viewed language as a system not of representations of things, but of non-pictorial abstractions and conceptual signs created on the basis of conceptual identity, devoid of content. With this term he abandoned the Enlightenment represenational theory of language, and declared the scepticism (started by Kant’s transcendental philosophy) about the possibility that a linguistic sign could represent objective reality

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