Hans Aarsleff: Difference between revisions

Right from the start, Aarsleff’sAarsleff's work on the history of linguistics fanned out to cover the history of ideas, the history of philosophy, and the history of science, resulting in major essays on [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]], [[John Locke|Locke]], [[Étienne Bonnot de Condillac|Condillac]], [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]], [[René Descartes|Descartes]], and [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]]. In 1982, a selection of his essays was published under the title “From Locke to Saussure: Essays in the Study of Language and Intellectual History”, again a high -profile publication in the field. Aarsleff also contributed a number of entries to [[Charles Coulston Gillispie|Charles C. Gillispie]]’s “The Dictionary of Scientific Biography”, among which are major essays on [[John Wilkins]] and [[Thomas Sprat]]. In June 1991, a special conference was held in honor of Hans Aarsleff at the [[University of Paris (post-1970)|Sorbonne]] in Paris. This resulted in a [[festschrift]] “La linguistique entre mythe et histoire”, edited by [[Elmore D|Daniel Droixhe]] and Chantal Grell (Münster: Nodus, 1993).

Aarsleff's writings on Wilhelm von Humboldt caused controversy as they drew attention to the fact that Humboldt was heavily influenced by French philosophers and linguists, which was denied by established German scholarship.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gipper|first1=H.|title=Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben der Wahrheit in der Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft: zum Streit um das Verhältnis Wilhelm von Humboldts zu Herder|journal=Logos Semantikos|date=1981|volume=1|pages=101–115}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Oesterreicher|first1=W.|title=Wem gehört Humboldt? Zum Einfluß der französischen Aufklärung auf die Sprachphilosophie der deutschen Romantik|journal=Logos Semantikos|date=1981|volume=1|pages=117–135}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Trabant|first1=J.|title=Der Gallische Herkules|date=2002|publisher=Francke Verlag|location=Tübingen}}</ref> His writings on the French-Swiss linguist [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] caused similar controversy, as he argued that Saussure’sSaussure's central ideas were strongly influenced by the French 19th-century philosopher-critic [[Hippolyte Taine]], which was denied by Saussure scholars, who have shown that the ideas which Aarsleff attributes to Taine can be traced to other sources about whom Saussure himself wrote, whereas there is not a single reference to Taine in his vast writings, published and unpublished.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Joseph|first1=J.|title=Root and branch: Pictet’s role in the crystallization of Saussure’s thought|journal=Times Literary Supplement|date=9 January 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Aarsleff|first1=Hans|title=Duality the key: Saussure’s debt to Taine in conceiving "the double essence of language"|journal=Times Literary Supplement|date=20 August 2004}}</ref>

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