Wilhelm Von Humboldt Research Articles

THE GENEALOGY OF JUDGEMENT: TOWARDS A DEEP HISTORY OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM

ABSTRACT The classical conception of academic freedom associated with Wilhelm von Humboldt and the rise of the modern university has a quite specific cultural foundation that centres on the controversial mental faculty of ‘judgement’. This article traces the roots of ‘judgement’ back to the Protestant Reformation, through its heyday as the signature feature of German idealism, and to its gradual loss of salience as both a philosophical and a psychological concept. This trajectory has been accompanied by a general shrinking in the scope of academic freedom from the promulgation of world-views to the offering of expert opinion.

Academic freedom: in justification of a universal ideal

This article examines the justification for, and benefits of, academic freedom to academics, students, universities and the world at large. It surveys the development of the concept of academic freedom within Europe, more especially the impact of the reforms at the University of Berlin instigated by Wilhelm von Humboldt. Following from this, the article examines the reasons why the various facets of academic freedom are important and why the principle should continue to be supported.

The rippling of Verschiedenheit: Wilhelm von Humboldt on philology, usage and intra‐linguistic diversity

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s concept of desynonymization, although it has been said to justify the philological record of usage amassed in dictionaries such as the OED, can only partially explain the late‐stage processes that result in diversity within a language. A stronger conceptual alternative to desynonymization can be found in Wilhelm von Humboldt’s reflections on linguistic diversity (Verschiedenheit) in his great essay of 1836. He supposed a criss‐crossing of conformity and freedom to be the key principle at play in divergences not only among languages and peoples but also among individual speakers. The striving of individuals to join thought and utterance results in the modifications of usage and the varying fates of those instances of usage (namely their perpetuation or vanishing through time). The re‐generation of language happens not primarily in the formation of new words or the recovery of old ones, but in daily use, in actions always subject to variation. It is exemplary use that extends the range of a language, not the imposition of a rationally improved vocabulary. The successes or failures of divergent utterance depend upon an ongoing wooing and winning and breaking of agreement about which words to use and understand and do things with.

El sujeto discursivo: la construcción social de subjetividades en el pensamiento de Bajtín y su Círculo

Este trabajo pretende discutir la reelaboración crítica de las nociones de “sujeto” y “conciencia” en algunos textos de Mijaíl Bajtín y sus colaboradores. Si Bajtín y los miembros de su Círculo de estudios heredaron del romanticismo alemán, y específicamente de W. von Humboldt la tesis de que la conciencia se constituye lingüísticamente (aunque no necesariamente reconozcan esta herencia), la concepción general del lenguaje como fenómeno socio-ideológico modifica las nociones de conciencia y sujeto que se constituyen en el medio lingüístico. Me interesa reflexionar sobre las posibilidades teóricas que se abren a partir de esta modificación, y en su vigencia para pensar la problemática de las exclusiones sociales en el ámbito del discurso.

Traduire l’Europe

Evropa je večjezična, ne glede na način, kako jo definiramo (geografsko, kulturno, politično). Vprašanje »prevajanja Evrope« nas torej nujno vodi k različnosti jezikov, med katerimi ne sme noben veljati kot izhodiščni za druge. V prvem delu se Yves Chevrel sprašuje, ali prevajanje Evrope ne pomeni morda poskus prevajanja sebe kot Evropejca. Naslanjajoč na odlomek iz Kafkovega Dnevnika, opremljenega z opombami Milana Kundere, dokazuje, da književnosti »malih narodov«, šele s tem, ko se uvrstijo v širši evropski kontekst, najdejo najboljšo priložnost, da se jih spozna in da se uveljavijo. Želja po prepoznavanju, po prevajanju sebe kot Evropejca, nas vodi do tega, da bi radi videli, kako drugi Evropejci prevajajo sebe in sporočajo svojo vizijo Evrope. Yves Chevrel tu navaja primer zanimivega uredniškega projekta, učbenika Zgodovine Evrope in sveta po letu 1945, ki so ga skupaj pripravili nemški in francoski zgodovinarji in ga leta 2006 izdali v nemški in francoski različici z istimi dokumenti in razporeditvijo strani. Ali se lahko takšna izkušnja ponovi in razširi na druga obdobja? Doba, ki je v Sloveniji znana kot »preseljevanje narodov« in v Nemčiji kot »Völkerwanderung«, francosko zgodovinopisje imenuje »invasions barbares« – invazija barbarov. Za zgodovino Evrope ni evropskega modela. Zadnji del se dotika branja literarnih del v prevodu, ki jih skuša Yves Chevrel rehabilitirati. Izhajajoč iz misli Wilhelma von Humbolta, ki je razlikoval pojma »das Fremde« in »die Fremdheit«, primerja prevode v različnih jezikih, kar omogoča boljše razumevanje različnih pristopov k istemu delu. Naslov romana Na Drini ćuprija Iva Andrića, ki se v slovenščini glasi Most na Drini, je v francoščini Le Pont sur la Drina, pa tudi Il est un pont sur la Drina. Različno pojmovanje evangelijske parabole o izgubljenem sinu je razvidno v naslovu slovenskega prevoda Gidovega dela Vrnitev izgubljenega sina (Retour de l’enfant prodigue). Chevrel ta del zaključuje z dvema citatoma Alberta Camusa in Virginie Woolf, ki poudarjata bogastvo evropske literarne dediščine. Evropa razmišlja v več jezikih, Evropa je celina prevajanja. Prevajanje posreduje, daje na razpolago, kliče k izmenjavi. Prevod je eden izmed veziv Evrope.

Una Lectura de Humboldt. Max Weber y la universidad alemana

Max Weber’s specialists and biographers have not considered it very interesting to reflect about this author’s critique of the German university. In my opinion, many of the holes and difficulties in meaning we still find in his works and life come from this broad and decisive lack of knowledge. In my essay, I try to start filling this gap, studying the way Weber answers to and updates the educational challenges of the founder of the modern German University: Wilhelm von Humboldt.

The Gender of Terror: War as (Im) Moral Institution in Kleist's Hermannsschlacht and Penthesilea

This article argues that the notion of warfare as a sublime endeavor does not originate in WWI literature but dates back to the eighteenth century. Alongside the debate on eternal peace, there existed a lively discourse, evidenced in texts by Wilhelm von Humboldt, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schlegel and others, that considered war a moral and culturally productive institution and lavished praise on its ennobling features. Secondly, the article suggests that Kleist's Hermannsschlacht and Penthesilea contain a critique of such recuperative war discourses. In Kleist's texts, the concept of terror emerges as the dark “Other” of the nexus of war and the sublime. Similarly, representations of savagery and inhuman cruelty are employed to deconstruct the notion of war as a rational, political act. Finally, the article claims that, in spite of these insights, Kleist's texts cannot be read as pacifist manifestos since the critique of war is undercut and confounded by the representation of gender.

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

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.

The normative foundations of research-based education: Philosophical notes on the transformation of the modern university idea

The current reorganisation of universities is part of a European policy aimed at strengthening Europe’s position with regard to the emerging global knowledge economy. The transformations in view of this overall goal are hardly accompanied by a critical discussion about the function or role of universities within and for society. The common assumption that universities offer a specific ‘general education’ by linking teaching to research, goes back to the modern university idea as conceived by Wilhelm von Humboldt. This article intends to show that philosophical attempts to restore the modern university model as a normative standard for criticising actual developments at European universities, have become problematic for contextual reasons that beg the basic assumptions of this model. Instead of answering the question of the ‘public role of universities’, the article rather attempts to clarify the problems with which this question is connected, from a political–philosophical perspective. It is argued that the difficulties in which the contemporary discourse about universities constantly becomes entangled, reflect more fundamental impasses and even contradictions that the modern democratic project is experiencing today.

Wilhelm von Humboldt and the ‘Orient’: On Edward W. Said’s remarks on Humboldt’s Orientalist studies

From an epistemological perspective, Wilhelm von Humboldt’s studies on the Oriental and East Asian languages and writing systems (Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sanskrit, Chinese, Polynesian) raise the question of his position in the Orientalist discourse of his time. Said [Said, E.W., 1978. Orientalism. Western Conceptions of the Orient, fourth ed. Penguin Books, London, 1995] considers Humboldt to be part of the “official intellectual genealogy” of a Eurocentric discourse on the ‘Orient’, which served as an ideological legitimation of European colonialism. This judgement on Humboldt is due to the assumption that Humboldt’s linguistic anthropology is based on the racial premises of a language typology formulated in 1808 in Friedrich Schlegel’s On the Language and Wisdom of the Indians [ Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier]. Being an independent scholar, Humboldt may typify the non-political, at least noncolonial context of the genesis of Orientalist philology in Germany. Nonetheless, to state that a “cosmopolitan erudition” [Mangold, S., 2004. Eine “weltbürgerliche Wissenschaft” – Die deutsche Orientalistik im 19. Jahrhundert. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart] was a main characteristic of German Orientalism must be considered as insufficient when it comes down to the concrete philological works in question, because Said’s analysis targets the subtle intellectual measuring of ‘Oriental’ cultures using Eurocentric criteria. Humboldt, whose linguistic position is generally characterized by the endeavour to combine universalism and cultural difference, especially in his Orientalist studies, has slipped on to Said’s list of eurocentric and racist ideologists for reasons which should be given serious consideration. For this reason Humboldt’s work shall be analyzed according to the main characteristics of Orientalism formulated by Said: the typological judgement on the Other, the interrelation between language and nation, and the religious discourse on the Indo-European origins of European civilization. It will become clear that Humboldt’s position within the Orientalist discourse of his time is remarkably different from the one assumed by Said.

Wilhelm von Humboldts Netzwerk mit Intellektuellen und Politikern in Paris: Annäherung und Distanz1

The present article examines (1) the networks that the jurist, state theorist, anthropologist and education theorist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) established with French intellectuals and politicians during his two stays (1789, 1797–1801) in Paris and (2) the influences and receptions that were made possible by networks between Humboldt and his contacts. I am adopting the network definition formulated by Zijderveld: “a set of reciprocal, usually informal, often rather anonymous bonds between actors (individuals or collectivities), which is set up and maintained for the promotion of private interests, and usually lacks a fixed, vertical hierarchy of power.” Networks are structured as dyads, triads, sub‐groups and groups. Humboldt's Paris diaries and his exchanges of letters with Schiller (1759–1805) and Goethe (1749–1832) will be cited as sources. It will be the task of subsequent studies to establish whether any letters from Humboldt's French contacts to Humboldt (and vice versa), or any diaries that belonged to them, exist. Hence, the present article analyses the relationships between Humboldt and his contacts from Humboldt's perspective only. The results of this study may be summarised as follows: it is not surprising that the young Humboldt did not establish any networks during his first stay in Paris in August 1789. Later on, however, the relationship deepened between Humboldt and Mirabeau (1749–1791), with whom he became acquainted during the course of his visit. In his work on the theory of the state, Ideen zum einem Versuch, die Gr�nzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen (1792), Humboldt examined the suggestions contained in Mirabeau's reflections on reform in Travail sur l'éducation publique (1791). In his work, Humboldt radicalised Mirabeau's ideas with a view to ensuring that education remained free from state influence. It was only during his second journey to Paris that Humboldt established an intensive network. As there are gaps in his diary, it is likely that some information on his network is missing. Furthermore, he twice interrupted his stay in Paris to travel to Spain (Autumn 1799‐Spring 1800, 1801). Of the 99 people he met, only those whom he met more than once will be taken into consideration in this article. The list of the remaining 33 people will be arranged as dyads, triads and sub‐groups, depending on the frequency of the contacts. As it is only possible to speak of a network if the interacting persons are working in the same areas and share the same interests, these will be analysed. The results deserve mention here: one area is the philosophy of Kant (1724–1804), which was decisive in providing a basis for Humboldt's educational theory. Fundamental differences between Humboldt and his contacts are evident here. These differences prompted Humboldt to study the sensualist writings of Condillac (1715–1780), who was mentioned by Humboldt's contact partners as an antipode to Kant. A second area consists of his discourses on state theory and education. Having assimilated (as a result of his contact to Mirabeau during his first stay in Paris) Mirabeau's writing on public education in his education theory, Humboldt evidently devoted himself—through the mediation of his contact partners—to Condorcet's (1743–1794) draft for the entire structure of the French educational system (1792). The question is discussed whether Humboldt was subsequently influenced by Condorcet in his—Humboldt's—plan (1809) to form, step by step, the Prussian education system. The result of the research into Humboldt's entire network with French intellectuals and politicians can be summarised as follows: in the domain of philosophy (Kant, Condillac), there is no sign of the opposing parties coming together, only of differences; whereas in his own education theory and policy, Humboldt assimilated the influences of Mirabeau and (most likely) Condorcet, too: convergence and distance. 1 Für Silvia. Ich danke Thomas Altfelix, Eckhardt Fuchs und Daniel Lindmark für ihre hilfreichen Kommentare.

Social Work Academics as Humboldtian Researcher‐Educators: Discussion of a Survey of Staff Profiles from Schools in Denmark, England and Germany

A survey of social work academics' education profiles in Denmark, England and Germany is discussed. Material was collected in 2004, mainly from schools' Internet websites. Findings were classified by highest achieved level of qualification, using British terminology: ‘diploma’, ‘degree’ and ‘doctoral’. Findings are discussed with reference to the status of social work knowledge and social work education. This discussion is framed by drawing on the model of the teacher‐researcher developed by Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). The German sample showed the highest proportions of social work academics with doctoral qualifications, with the lowest levels being found in the Danish sample and the English sample being situated in‐between.

Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University (review)

Reviewed by: Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University Robert N. Matuozzi Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University. By William Clark . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 662 pp. $45.00. ISBN 0-226-10921-6. Using Max Weber to explain the role of rationalization, bureaucracy, and charisma in academic life, William Clark's Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University examines European universities in medieval society and their emergence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as modern state-administered research institutions. This transformation occurred largely in Protestant German lands and is now the model for the academic institutions throughout much of the world. Early modern academic regimes reflected the "juridico-ecclesiastical" power of medieval church and state. By contrast, modern institutions were reconfigured by the political-economic imperatives of the secular "policing" state—by the ministry and the market—or what is now managerial and bureaucratic capitalism. Clark describes these changes in the academic order through the material practices associated with an "armory of little tools—catalogues, charts, tables (of paper), reports, questionnaires, dossiers and so on" (6). The impact of the ministry and the market on academic practices was pronounced, although never total, as Jesuit universities and the Oxbridge colleges in England opted to retain certain medieval practices well into the modern period. [End Page 103] Clark traces the valorization of charismatic authority in academic life in a variety of contexts. In the traditional university, he says, authority inhered in the cloistered academic collective and was manifested in external signs and rituals. These consisted of clothing, collegial voting prerogatives, books and furniture, a static body of texts, and nepotism and patronage. Charisma and authority in the modern research university are split, with the individual professor seen as the embodiment of rationally administered authority that resides outside of the advisory collegial body. In the modern regime authority resides with the sovereign and his or her minister and later on with a provost and board of overseers who manage an administrative echelon. The professor in the modern academic collective thus achieves success and legitimacy according to meritocratic criteria; in theory, at least, this process endorses a degree of anonymity and objectivity in accordance with administrative imperatives and goals. The medieval academician operated in a relatively homogeneous cultural space in which public and private roles were fused. By contrast, the modern research university, a site of increased ideological and bureaucratic surveillance, intensifies the modern schizoid split between public and private roles. Charisma in the medieval academic regime was rooted in speech, tradition, and orthodoxy; in the modern order charisma inheres primarily in publishing, originality, and innovation. But real changes in academic life have taken hold. Regulations governing academic appointments, for example, have provided a check on the ancient practice of nepotism and its convoluted subterfuges. The institution of academic calendars and the replacement of private endowments by public funding have meant that professors can no longer take decades to give a public lecture on two or three texts. Clark's chapter on the evolution of the college library catalog neatly encapsulates his theme of the medieval university in transition. He observes that during the Baroque period universities "did not consistently distinguish between libraries, museums, cabinets, and often not between those and archives and treasuries" (298). As an aside, his description of early modern archives is enough to make today's archivists cringe. In medieval libraries books were chained to desks and referenced according to their donor (the collector's "juridical estate"), often housed in "treasure rooms" or cabinets, without further classification. Shelf lists simply described the physical locations of books that had been acquired in a haphazard manner. In the early modern library catalog an epistemic tension therefore developed between collector and academic discipline. In the Enlightenment catalog this tension in epistemic library regimes resurfaces, this time regarding the systematic catalog versus the author catalog, with nineteenth-century Romantic ideology privileging the author. Wilhelm von Humboldt's vision of a comprehensive, unified academic order at the University of Berlin (ca. 1810) had parallels in library theory and practice, culminating in the unified library catalog that was searchable by both academic discipline and author. Thus...

Foreign Words: Translator-Authors in the Age of Goethe (review)

Reviewed by: Foreign Words: Translator-Authors in the Age of Goethe Marilyn Gaddis Rose (bio) Foreign Words: Translator-Authors in the Age of Goethe. By Susan Bernofsky. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2005. ix + 252 pp. $49.95. Susan Bernofsky's four essays are related but discrete. Each is a model of twenty-first century, German oriented analysis in the speculative tradition of translation studies. As such, the essays will appeal to related, but potentially discrete, audiences: translation studies scholars who are sympathetic to the speculative tradition, and late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Germanists and comparatists. It is also possible that even these prospective readers may be initially misled by the principal title, which itself requires in group analysis by readers in the speculative tradition. (Bernofsky's essays will be of considerably less interest to readers who espouse the empirical tradition currently dominating translation studies. These readers typically point out that such theorizing affects chiefly literary and scholarly discourse, accounting for only a small portion of the translating required by society.) Ever since Luther justified his approach to translating the Bible, German language scholars have produced some of the most thoughtful, and in many respects definitive, accounts of how and why translations should be realized. The practical results of the theorizing, always provocative as in the case of Hölderlin—or Luther himself—have often been stunning successes like the Schlegel Tieck Shakespeare. (Bernofsky gives Caroline Schlegel and Dorothea Tieck their centuries' overdue translator credits.) Despite the terms in vogue, in the end it always comes down to whether translations should target the audience, hence be "free," domesticated, culturally assimilated; or whether translations should defer to the source, hence be "literal," foreignized (Lawrence Venuti), or culturally "thick" (Anthony Appiah). For the most part, readers have not only been forgiving of recognized authors like Robert Lowell or Seamus Heaney imposing their own style when they translate, but even expect and excuse such liberties. Some of us may even call Samuel Beckett's French text his first drafts. What Bernofsky brings to bear to the general discussions in translation theory since George Steiner's After Babel of 1975 (whom and which she does not mention) is her concept "service translation." By this term, she means a translation that, like a foreignized translation, respects the source language [End Page 365] and its rhetorical tradition but is sufficiently within the target readers' repertory of expectations to be acceptable. She stresses that a "service translation" is a goal, not a product (42). She could have added that some of the most acclaimed translators of the past quarter-century (e.g., Breon Mitchell, Gregory Rabassa, Margaret Sayers Peden, William Weaver), seem to have done this with a combination of erudition, intuition, and talent. The marked advantage of her term "service translation" is that it will accommodate translation to and from non Indo European languages. Her own experience translating the Japanese author Yoko Tawada via Yumi Selden must have assisted her. Although the first expression of the Sapir Whorf hypothesis can be credited to a Goethe contemporary, Wilhelm von Humboldt, who was studying a Javanese language at the time of his death, the German author theorists whom Bernofsky examines (like Voss, Schlegel, and Schleiermacher) and her contemporary theorists (like Antoine Berman and Lawrence Venuti) make pronouncements which are not simply Western oriented. However, such foreignizing strategies could also result in exoticized texts which undermine the desired ethical objectives. (Sir Richard Burton and Edward Fitzgerald come to mind.) When Bernofsky moves to Kleist as a translator of Molière, Hölderlin as a translator of Pindar and Sophocles, and Goethe as translator of Diderot, she moves from thought provoking controversy to demonstrated brilliance. She reveals by personal example that not only does translating provide an "intimate act" of reading, but also that line by line comparisons and concomitant speculating on the intervening interliminal semantics and phonetics enriches texts on both sides of the act of translation. Likewise, this approach provides feasible insights on the translators' own readings. For readers whose knowledge of German and French is token, Bernofsky provides meticulous translations of all her quotations. It goes without saying that her own "back" translations also enrich...

The Linguistic Turn of Social Contract Theory: Ernst Cassirer and the Conditions for the Possibility of a Promise

In this paper, we explore Cassirer’s view of social contract theory. We maintain that Cassirer has established a linguistic turn of social contract theory, by exploring the conditions for the possibility of a promise. For that purpose Cassirer’s theory of the linguistic sign, as inspired by the linguistic theory of Wilhelm von Humboldt, becomes decisive, because of its specific nature and direction into the future. First, in Section 1, we explore previous social contract theorists, from Nicholas von Cusa to Immanuel Kant. In Section 1, as a result, we establish the concept of the promise as the core concept of social contract theory, and as the fundamental philosophical problem conveyed by the natural lawyers. Moreover, in Section 2, we investigate the conditions for the possibility of a promise, and relate it to the symbolic nature of the human being. The promise, hence the capacity to enter into a contract, becomes a characteristically human activity, hence an expression of human dignity.

Humboldt's Unity of Research and Teaching: Influence on the Philosophy and Development of U.S. Higher Education

The 19th century German model of higher education, with its emphasis on the unity of teaching and research and graduate education, was the model emulated by several of what were to become the most prestigious universities in the United States. The German model has its origins in the philosophy of the German Wilhelm von Humboldt. This university model played a significant role in the economic ascendance of Germany in the late 1800s and was a precursor to the development of corporate funded large-scale university research. This model of research, combined with the extreme level of faculty independence, also played a role in the rise of German militarism in the 20th century. Finally, the German university, based upon the Humboldtian model, illustrates the difficulty of attempting to both maintain elite research universities while allowing mass access. The influence on higher education in the United States and the lessons to be learned from the German university system are valid reasons for learning more about Wilhelm von Humboldt.

Syntax and Passions. Bouhours, Vico, and the Genius of the Nation

Contemporary scholars of nationalism agree that does not constitute a necessary and sufficient criterion of nationality any more than religion or territory. (1) They usually ascribe belief that a national expresses unique character of a people and therefore is nation made manifest to Johannes Gottfried Herder and to German thought, which inspired nationalist movements in Germany and in Eastern Europe. (2) Herder, actually, linked of language (Sprachgeist) with soul of people (Volksseele) and did not refer to nation. (3) It was Johann Gottlieb Fichte, in his Reden an die deutsche Nation (1807-1808), who translated Herder's ideas into incendiary political arguments, and then Wilhelm von Humboldt who linked two concepts of spirit of nation and spirit of (Uber die Verschiedenheiten des menschlichen Sprachbaues, 1827-1829). (4) Yet many of German Romantic arguments were anticipated in a series of exchanges between Italian and French intellectuals (frequently called Orsi--Bouhours controversy) (5) at least one generation before Herder. In these exchanges, explanations of of language (genie de la langue) shifted from internal definitions (phonetics, syntax, and idioms) originating in Renaissance, to external causes (climate, politics) and, in particular, to national character. (6) For first time, relationship between of language (genie de la langue) and of nation--a fundamental paradigm of linguistic nationalism--was extensively articulated and used with polemical, often explicitly chauvinistic intentions. Stretching throughout eighteenth and into first decades of nineteenth century, discussion on genius not only articulated nascent arguments of linguistic nationalism but also shaped several issues that were applied to later definitions of nation. (7) I believe, therefore, that study of national character, of its formation and uses not only in Germany but also in France and Italy, (8) should include an understanding of earlier notion of genius of and of how two concepts (national character and genius of language) merged into core of discussion. (9) Here, I shall concentrate on a specific aspect of French-Italian debate, that is controversy about hyperbaton (inversion), or use of an unexpected word order characterized by Longinus as truest mark of passion (10)--a figure able both to express and to evoke emotions. In order to establish place of Dominique Bouhours, a Jesuit lexicographer and a member of Academie Francaise, and that of Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico in context of debate on genius, I shall discuss their views on emotive function of utterance and analyze political implications of their positions. (11) The controversy over hyperbaton may seem to be an overly specific and 'technical' issue, however it articulates on a fundamental level clash of opposite ideas about nature of language, conflict of different traditions of rhetoric and, of singular interest to modern observer, it provides a vivid example of how notion of genius of came to shape idea of national character. In this controversy, sets of complementary propositions concerning origins and boundaries--that is essential elements of national identity formation (12)--are developed. Moreover, in true nationalistic fashion, a few cultural features, mostly mediated through literature and perceived as negative within one nation's system of belief are selected as representative of the other nation and employed to prove its inferiority. (13) It turns out that disputes concerning hyperbaton are ultimately used to support claims of superiority of this or that and through language, superiority of this or that nation. In last quarter of seventeenth century, several treatises concerned with genius of French appeared in France. …

The Anglo-American University at its Global High Tide

Compared with the Firm, the Government, or even the Army, the University is under-theorized. Despite its extraordinary transformation since the Second World War, our tools of interpretation still rest to a surprising extent on the norms established by Wilhelm von Humboldt and Francis Newman. Nevertheless whatever the truth of claims about the 'knowledge economy' the University is clearly crucial to modern society. We need to understand it.

Anthropologische Psychiatrie und Sprachphilosophie

At the beginning of the 20th century psychiatry was dominated by scientists who were convinced that disorders were more or less exclusively the result of diseases of the brain. Amongst many others Theodor Meynert in Vienna and Carl Wernicke in Halle emphasised the importance of neuroanatomical and neuropathological research. However, this naturalistic view on disorders - mental diseases are diseases of the brain, as Wilhelm Griesinger pointed out in 1845 - was reiteratively critisised. Based on Martin Heidegger's, Jean-Paul Sartre's and Edmund Husserl's philosophy, in the middle of the 20th century a phenomenological-anthropological school of psychiatry developed. In Germany, amongst others, Erwin Straus, Ludwig Binswanger, and Werner Blankenburg stood for this particular approach to psychological phenomena which emphasised the subjective experience, contrary to a more objectivising, natural sciences-based approach of psychiatry. Phenomenological psychiatry argues that natural science-based research in psychiatry neglects crucial aspects of human experience. This scientific approach is grounded on the accurate reconstruction of narratives, given by individuals. Today, there are few scientists defending phenomenological psychiatry, yet recently there have been several publications, e.g. by Thomas Fuchs, dealing with the so-called 'Leibphanomenologie'. Derived from a philosophical perspective, which points out the constitutive impact of language for creating reality, the article presents critical remarks on some aspects of the 'Leibphanomenologie', which is strongly influenced by the publications of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Hermann Schmitz. Going back to Wilhelm von Humboldt, it was Ludwig Wittgenstein whose work coined the development of a philosophy of language, especially by the well-known Tractatus logico-philosophicus and Philosophische Untersuchungen. Nowadays it is for example Karl-Otto Apel who - in his Transcendental pragmatic - emphasises the crucial role of language in the constitution of reality. In spite of their differences, elaborated on in this paper, phenomenological psychiatry and the philosophy of language agree in their scepiticism towards an only natural sciences-based psychiatry. Passages of two texts by Thomas Fuchs (University of Heidelberg), Leib, Raum, Person and Psychopathologie von Leib und Raum, in which the relation of 'Leibphanomenologie' to some disorders is considered, are discussed in detail. It should become evident that to a large extent the vagueness of the language of anthropological psychiatry is the result of a penumbrous relation between language and reality in phenomenological philosophy. It will be demonstrated that a critical review of a science's language can be of benefit clarifying the relation between this science and its objects, and moreover possibly initiating new conceptual considerations.

Language as Encoding Thought vs. Language as Medium of Thought

In this paper I take up the question of the possible influence of J. G. Fichte on Wilhelm von Humboldt's theory of language. I first argue that the historical record is unclear, but show that there is a deep philosophical difference between the two views and, as a result of this difference, we should conclude that the influence was small. Drawing on a distinction made by Michael Dummett, 1 show that Fichte understands language as encoding thought while Humboldt understands language as a medium of thought. The consequences of this difference affect a wide range of issues from their views on the nature of personal pronouns, to their theories of communicative understanding, to their theories of the proper nature of inquiry into language.