Nadja Germann: Philosophy of Language in the Arabic World

Colloquium lecture by Nadja Germann (Albert-Ludwigs-Universit at Freiburg), organized by the Department of the History of Philosophy

Linguistic Relativity? Philosophy of Language in the Arabic World

What is language? What is its relation to thought and, beyond thought, to reality? Questions like these have been at the center of lively debate ever since the rise of scholarly activities in the Islamic world during the 8^th/9^th century. In view of the fact that from the outset one of the main sources of inspiration was Greek philosophy, specifically Aristotle’s logical writings (Organon), it comes as no surprise that one of the major tendencies in Arabic philosophy of language was characterized by a Neoplatonized Aristotelian conception that may be described as a sort of universalism. However, in contrast to this trend, and largely overlooked by current research, another, strikingly different view on language and its relation to thought emerged, one that I will tentatively (although somewhat anachronistically) dub ‘linguistic relativity’. My aim in this talk consists in exploring this approach more thoroughly, an approach, it appears, that became prevalent over the ages. In order to do so, I will look more closely into its formative period—spanning approximately from Abū ʿUthmān al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 868) to Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī (d. 1023)—when this particular approach took shape, partially in direct contact with the competing ‘Greek’ model.

How to attend

Everyone welcome! Please send an email to Martin Lenz to ask for the Google Meet link needed to attend this talk.