PH02105 In beginning was the word or on the origins of words

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2015
Extent and Intensity
1/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
prof. Dr. phil. Jakub Mácha, Ph.D. (lecturer)
PhDr. Josef Petrželka, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Josef Krob, CSc.
Department of Philosophy – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Hana Holmanová
Supplier department: Department of Philosophy – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Wed 12:30–13:15 A11
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 14 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
At the end of the course, the student will be able to understand the most prominent philosophical reflections of the origin of language.
Syllabus
  • 1. Beginnings of considerations about the origin of words (before Plato).
  • 2. Plato - Kratylos and other texts.
  • 3. Aristotle's reasoning about words and speech.
  • 4. Hellenistic concepts of words and language.
  • 5. Augustine's words about language.
  • 6. Views on the origin of language of modern times and of the Enlightenment (Condillac, Rousseau, Herder, Humboldt).
  • 7. Friedrich Nietzche, truth and falsehood.
  • 8. Ludwig Wittgenstein and his Augustinian conception of language.
  • 9. The current views on the origin of language (Chomsky, Pinker, Tomasello, Millikan).
  • 10. The origin of language from the perspective of contemporary linguistics.
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Marc D. Hauser, Noam Chomsky, W. Tecumseh Fitch, The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve? Science New Series, Vol. 298, No. 5598 (Nov. 22, 2002), pp. 1569-1579.
  • ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques. Esej o původu jazyků, kde se hovoří o melodii a o hudebním napodobování. Translated by Martin Pokorný. V českém jazyce vyd. 1. Praha: Prostor, 2011, 158 s. ISBN 9788072602612. info
  • NIETZSCHE, Friedrich. O pravdě a lži ve smyslu nikoli morálním. Translated by Věra Koubová. 2., opr. vyd. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2010, 59 s. ISBN 9788072984282. info
  • PINKER, Steven. Jazykový instinkt : jak mysl vytváří jazyk. Translated by Markéta Hofmeisterová. Vydání první. Praha: Dybbuk, 2009, 550 stran. ISBN 9788074380068. info
  • Origins of human communication. Edited by Michael Tomasello. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008, xiii, 393. ISBN 0262201771. info
  • HERDER, Johann Gottfried von. Uměním k lidskosti : úvahy o jazyce a literatuře. Translated by Jan Binder. Vydání první. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2006, 281 stran. ISBN 8072981471. info
  • NECHUTOVÁ, Jana. Aurelius Augustinus, Křesťanská vzdělanost - De doctrina christiana (Aurelius Augustinus, The Christian Doctrine). Praha: Vyšehrad, 2004, 232 pp. ISBN 80-7021-740-5. info
  • HUMBOLDT, Wilhelm von. On language : on the diversity of human language construction and its influence on the mental development of the human species. Edited by Michael Losonsky, Translated by Peter Heath. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 296 s. ISBN 0521667720. info
  • DEACON, Terrence William. The symbolic species : the co-evolution of language and the brain. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997, 527 s. ISBN 0393317544. info
  • WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig. Filosofická zkoumání. Vyd. 1. Praha: Filosofický ústav AV ČR, 1993, 294 s. ISBN 80-7007-040-4. info
  • CONDILLAC, Etienne Bonnot de. Esej o původu lidského poznání. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 1974, 245 s. URL info
  • PLATÓN. Kratylos. Translated by František Novotný. V Praze: Jan Laichter, 1935, xiv, 93. info
Teaching methods
lectures
Assessment methods
oral discussion on one text you will choose from the following list:

  • Plato. Cratylus.
  • Aurelius Augustinus. De doctrina christiana, Books I a II.
  • Condillac. Esej o původu lidského poznání.
  • Herder. O původu řeči.
  • Nietzsche. O pravdě a lži ve smyslu nikoli morálním.
  • Tomasello, M. First steps toward a usage-based theory of language acquisition or Origins of Human Communication.
  • Pinker S. Jazykový instinkt: jak mysl vytváří jazyk.
  • Marc D. Hauser, Noam Chomsky, W. Tecumseh Fitch, The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve? Science New Series, Vol. 298, No. 5598 (Nov. 22, 2002), s. 1569-1579.
  • Defez, A. Plato, Wittgenstein and the Origins of Language
    • Language of instruction
    Czech
    Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
    Study Materials
    The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2016.
    • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2015, recent)
    • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2015/PH02105