RESUMO 26 | COMUNICAÇÕES

Hermann Lotze: Observations on the concept of language in the work “Microcosmus”

HAUBERT, Laura. E. | PUC-SP, Brasil

The fascination over linguistic matters was already present in the early days of philosophy amid the Greeks. In fact, from the pre-Socratics to the Sophists, and from those to the great figures of Plato and Aristotle, all showed interest in some kind of matter concerning language. During Middle Ages, logician and grammar scholars focused in the study of categories and concepts, while Modern philosophers observed a new view on the language as a tool or aim to find in it a genealogical understanding of society. Despite this long journey, in none of these periods linguistic was considered an object of study as fundamental as in the XIX century, especially in countries of German language. In those, the subject was consolidated and started to become one of the main topics of reflection in academia. In general, when approaching this subject in the XIX century philosophers were divided into two movements: (a) those whose interest was cultural linguistic, and (b) those who treated the matters of linguistics related to those of logic. In this setting, the German Rudolf Hermann Lotze (1817-1881) was a prominent figure, for he developed the field of linguistic in both of these dominia. In his work “Microcosmus”, he approached the model (a), and in his work “Logic” developed the model (b). The current research intends to expose some observations related to the language in the philosophy of Lotze, concerning his perspective, that being, focusing the efforts in the approach of the book “Microcosmus: an essay concerning man and his relation to the world” published in the years of 1856 and 1864. In this work of great impact amid his contemporaries, Lotze developed in the fourth, fifth and sixth book a relation among culture, language and psychology. In fact, to some interpreters such as William Woodward what is developed in it is first and foremost a kind of program to language and culture, which also approached subjects concerning religion, science, arts and politics. In the words of Woodward, Lotze “[...] broke new ground in shifting away from the universal laws of his medical psychology to describe language and cultural products.” (WOODWARD, William R. Hermann Lotze: na intelectual biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, p.259). Effectively, to fulfill the proposition, the following proceedings were taken: (a) emphasize the interest for language in the German context of the XIX century; (b) contextualization of Hermann Lotze and the work “Microcosmus” towards the linguistic subject; and (c) present Lotze observations concerning the language in the chosen work. Lastly, the debate was concluded by emphasizing the importance of Lotzian contribution and the reception of those by his contemporaries.