Universal Languages and Scientific Taxonomy in the Seventeenth Century

by M. M. Slaughter

• ISBN13: 9780521135443
• ISBN10: 0521135443
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

In the seventeenth century, a series of proposals and schemes for an artificial language intended to replace Latin as the international medium of communication gained currency. Fully developed, these schemes consisted of a classification of all known 'things' and a set of self-defining names designed to reflect the divisions of the classification. This attempt to create a specialized and scientific form of language was enthusiastically taken up by a number of eminent scientists of the day, including Bacon, Descartes, Newton and other members of the Royal Society. Dr Slaughter demonstrates that the idea of a universal language was a rational response to the inadequacy of seventeenth-century language, a result of social and cultural changes precipitated by the rise of science, the spread of print and literacy, and the subsequent development of a literate culture. A valuable addition to the study of history and literature, this book also has relevance for contemporary languages with similar problems of development.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Rise of Essentialist Taxonomy

The Aristotelian origins

Taxonomy

Nomenclature

The Development of the Universal Languages

The groundwork

Proposals and schemes for a universal language

Proposals for a philosophical language

Schemes for a philosophical language

The culmination, aftermath and end

The End of the Taxonomic Episteme

The fall of essentialist taxonomy

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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