Wilhelm von Humboldt, Fichte, and the Idéologues (1794–1805)
A Re-examination
This paper – whose point of departure is Hans Aarsleff s thesis that the intellectual environment provided by the Idéologues in the years 1798–1801 decisively influenced Humboldt’s resolve to make the study of language his central intellectual preoccupation and decisively shaped his ideas about language – comes to the following conclusions: (1) In his years in Jena (1794–97) Humboldt’s concern with problems of language was already manifest, and formulations characteristic of his mature linguistics already appear in his writings. At this time he became intimately conversant with Fichte’s philosophy and Fichtean concepts made a lasting imprint on his approach to general grammar. Humboldt, however, did not cast aside altogether what he had absorbed from the tradition of Locke and the Enlightenment. He remained firmly committed to empirical methods in what he considered their appropriate sphere. (2) In his first year in Paris (1798) Humboldt confronted head-on the leading Idéologues with a critique from a Kantian-Fichtean standpoint, but he manifested no preoccupation with the Idéologues’ ideas about linguistic matters per se. During his later years in Paris he found a more congenial intellectual partner in Joseph Degérando, and serious exchanges about linguistic questions did occur, with Humboldt however as the dominant partner. Meanwhile Humboldt’s fascination with the Basques was the wedge opening up an approach to the philosophy of language based on detailed study of many languages. In moving in this direction he was propelled mainly by an inner dynamic rather than by intellectual ‘influences’. Or so it would seem. Meanwhile he became disenchanted with philosophical systems. (3) A subsidiary theme is Humboldt’s relations with Herder.
References (66)
References
Aarsleff, Hans. 1975. “The Eighteenth Century, including Leibniz”. Current Trends in Linguistics ed. by Thomas A. Sebeok, vol. XIII1: Historiography of Linguistics 383–479. The Hague: Mouton.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Aarsleff, Hans. 1982. From Locke to Saussure: Essays on the study of language and intellectual history. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Acton, H. B. 1959. “The Philosophy of Language in Revolutionary France”. Proceedings of the British Academy 451.199–219. London.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bernhardi, August Ferdinand. 1801–03. Sprachlehre. 21 vols. Berlin: Frölich. (Repr., Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1973.)![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bollnow, Otto Friedrich. 1966. Die Lebensphilosophie F.H. Jacobis. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Borsche, Tiiman. 1981. Sprachansichten: Der Begriff der menschlichen Rede in der Sprachphilosophie W. v. Humboldts. Stuttgart: Klett & Cotta.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brandes, Carl, ed. 1852. Wilhelm von Humboldt: Gesammelte Werke. Vol.V1. Berlin: G. Reimer.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bratranek, F. Th., ed. 1876. Goethe’s Briefwechsel mit den Gebrüdern Humboldt. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Busse, Winfried & Jürgen Trabant, eds. 1986. Sémiotique, théories et politiques linguistiques pendant la revolution française. Proceedings of the Conference held at Berlin, October 1983. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Degérando, Joseph Marie. 1800. Des Signes et de l’art de penser. 41 vols. Paris: Goujon fils.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Düntzer, Heinrich, ed. 1858. Zur Deutschen Litteratur und Geschichte: Ungedruckte Briefe aus Knebels Nachlass, Vol.II1. Nürnberg: Bauer & Raspe.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb. 1965ff. Gesamtausgabe der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Ed. by Reinhard Lauth et al. Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt: Frommann-Holzboog. (Cited as GA
.)![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Flitner, Andreas & Klaus Giel, eds. 1981. Wilhelm von Humboldt: Werke. Vol. V1. Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchgesellschaft; Stuttgart: J.G. Cotta’sche Buchhandlung.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Garate, Justo. 1985. “La primere nota de Guillermo von Humboldt sobre la lengua vasco, impresa en 1801”. Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos 301.158–162.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gipper, Helmut. 1981. “Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben der Wahrheit in der Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft: Zum Streit um das Verhältnis W. v. Humboldts zu Herder”. Logos Semantikos, vol. I1, ed. by Jürgen Trabant, 101–115. Berlin: W. de Gruyter; Madrid: Credos.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gipper, Helmut. 1987. “Sprechen und Denken in der Sicht Wilhelm von Humboldts”. Sprache und Bildung: Beiträge zum 150. Todestag Wilhelm von Humboldts ed. by Rudolf Hoberg, 53–85. Darmstadt: Lehrdruckerei der TH Darmstadt.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. 1888.
Werke. Sophienausgabe, Dritte Abtheilung: Tagebücher
, Vol.II1. Weimar: Böhlau.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grafton, Anthony. 1981. “Wilhelm von Humboldt”. The American Scholar 501.371–381.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guillois, Antoine. 1894. Le Salon de Mme. Helvétius. Cabanis et les Ideologues. Paris: C. Levy.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guillois, Antoine. 1897. La Marquise de Condorcet, sa famille, son salon, ses amis, 1764–1822. Paris: Ollendorff.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gusdorf, Georges. 1978. L’Avènement des sciences humaines au siècle des lumières: Vol. VIII: La Conscience révolutionnaire: Les idèologues. Paris: Payot.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hamy, E.-T. 1907. Les Humboldt et les Gérando. (= Mémoires de l’Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Lyon; Sciences et lettres, Ser.3, vol.91), 241–60. Lyon.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heine, Heinrich. 1956. “Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland”. Werke, vol. IV1, ed. by Paul Stapf. Basel & Stuttgart: E. Birkhäuser.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Helfer, Martha B. 1987. “Herder, Fichte, and Humboldt’s ‘Ueber Denken und Sprechen’”. Paper presented at the Herder Conference at Stanford University, Nov. 5–8, 1987. Unpublished Manuscript.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hölderlin, Friedrich. 1970. Sämtliche Werke und Briefe. Vol. II1, ed. by Gunther Mieth. Munich: Hanser.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1903–1936. Gesammelte Schriften. Ed. by Albert Leitzmann et al. 171 vols. Berlin: B. Behr. (Repr. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1967–68.) (Cited as GS
.)![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kennedy, Emmet. 1978. Destutt de Tracy and the Origins of “Ideology”. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lammers, Wilhelm. 1935. W. von Humboldts Weg zur Sprachforschung. Berlin: Junker & Dünnhaupt.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Leitzmann, Albert, ed. 1912. Wilhelm von Humboldts Briefe an eine Freundin. Abridged edition. Leipzig: Insel Verlag.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Leitzmann, Albert, ed. 1916–17. “Wilhelm von Humboldt und Frau von Staël”. Deutsche Rundschau Nos. 169 and 1701.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Leitzmann, Albert, ed. 1934. W. v. Humboldts Briefe an Johann Gottfried Schweighäuser. Jena: Frommann.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Leitzmann, Albert, ed. 1939. Wilhelm von Humboldts Briefe an K.G. Brinkmann. (=
Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, 288.) Stuttgart: Karl W. Hiersemann.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Leroux, Robert. 1932. Guillaume de Humboldt: La formation de sa pensée jusqu’en 1794. Paris: Société d’édition “Les Belles Lettres”.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Levi-Strauss, Claude. 1961. Tristes Tropiques. Transl. into English by John Russell. New York: Criterion Books.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Liebrucks, Bruno. 1965. Sprache und Bewusstsein. Vol.II: Wilhelm von Humboldt. Frankfurt a.M.: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Menze, Clemens. 1965. W. v. Humboldts Lehre und Bild vom Menschen. Ratingen bei Düsseldorf: A. Henn.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Menze, Clemens, ed. 1979. Wilhelm von Humboldt: Bildung und Sprache. Paderborn: F. Schöningh.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Müller-Vollmer, Kurt. 1967. Poesie und Einbildungskraft: Zur Dichtungstheorie W. v. Humboldts. Stuttgart: Metzler. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Müller-Vollmer, Kurt. 1977. “From Poetics to Linguistics: Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Romantic Idea of Language”. Le Groupe de Coppet: Actes et documents du deuxième Colloque de Coppet 10–13 Juillet 1974. Bibliotheque de Litt-érature comparée, 1181, 195–215. Geneva: M. Slatkine; Paris: H. Champion.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Müller-Vollmer, Kurt. 1981. “Fichte und die romantische Sprachtheorie”. Der Transzendentale Gedanke: Die gegenwärtige Darstellung der Philosophie Fichtes ed. by Klaus Hammacher, 442–59. Hamburg: F. Meiner.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Müller-Vollmer, Kurt. 1985. “Thinking and Speaking: Herder, Humboldt and French Semiotics”. Paper presented at the Herder Conference in Monterey, California, Nov. 7–10, 1985. Unpublished manuscript.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Müller-Vollmer, Kurt. 1985–86. Guillaume de Humboldt, Interprète de Madame de Staël: Distances et affinités”. Cahiers Staëliens, Nouvelle Série, No.37, 80–96. Paris: J. Touzot.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Müller-Vollmer, Kurt. 1987. “Wilhelm von Humboldts sprachwissenschaftlicher Nachlass: Probleme seiner Erschliessung”. Unpublished manuscript.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Oesterreicher, Wolf. 1981. “Wem gehört Humboldt? Zum Einfluss der französischen Aufklärung auf die Sprachphilosophie der deutschen Romantik”. Logos Semantikos, vol. I1, ed. by Jürgen Trabant, 117–35. Berlin: W. de Gruyter; Madrid: Gredos.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Oesterreicher, Wolf. 1986. “Ere française et Deutsche Bewegung. Les Idéologues, l’histori-cité de langage et la naisance de la linguistique”. Busse & Trabant 1986:97–143.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Platner, Ernst. 1793. Philosophische Aphorismen. Teil I1. Leipzig: Schwi-ckert.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pross, Wolfgang, ed. 1978. J.G. Herder: Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache. Munich: Hammer.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ricken, Ulrich. 1986. “Les Idéologues et la sensation transformé”. Busse & Trabant 1986:19–43.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schiller, Friedrich. 1982. On the Aesthetic Education of Man. Ed. by Elizabeth M. Wilkinson & L. A. Willoughby. Oxford: Clarendon Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schmitter, Peter. 1982. “Kunst und Sprache: Ueber den Zusammenhang von Sprachphilosophie und Aesthetik bei Wilhelm von Humboldt”. Sprachwissenschaft 71:40–57.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schmitter, Peter. 1985. “Ein Transsemiotisches Modell: W. v. Humboldts Auffassung von Kunst und Sprache”. Rekonstruktion und Interpretation: Problemgeschichtliche Studien zur Sprachtheorie und Interpretation von Ockham bis Humboldt ed. by Klaus D. Dutz & Ludger Kaczmarek, 311–334. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schreiber, Arndt, ed. 1956. Wilhelm von Humboldt: Briefe an Christine Reinhard-Reimarus. Heidelberg: Lambert Schneider.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Seidel, Siegfried, ed. 1962. Der Briefwechsel zwischen Friedrich Schiller und Wilhelm von Humboldt. 21 vols. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Simon, Josef. 1981. Sprachphilosophie. Freiburg & Munich: Karl Alber.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Spranger, Eduard. 1908. “Wilhelm von Humboldt und Kant”, Kant Studien 131.57–129. Berlin: Reither & Reichard. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Staël-Holstein, Anne Louise Germaine de. 1820. (Euvres complètes. Vol. VIII1. Paris: Treuttel & Würtz.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stetter, Christian. 1986. “Ueber Denken und Sprechen: Wilhelm von Humboldt zwischen Fichte und Herder”. Manuscript. Forthcoming publication in Semiotik: Interdisziplinäre und historische Aspekte ed. by U. L. Figge. Bochum 1987 (Bochumer Beiträge zur Semiotik).![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sweet, Paul R. 1978–80. Wilhelm von Humboldt: A Biography. 21 vols. Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Taylor, Charles. 1985. Philosophical Papers I: Human Agency and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Trabant, Jürgen. 1983. “Ideele Bezeichnung: Steinthals Humboldt Kritik”. History of Semiotics ed. by Achim Eschbach & Jürgen Trabant, 252–76. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Villers, Charles. 1801. Philosophie de Kant; Ou Principes fondamentaux de la philosophic transcendentale. Metz: Collignon.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wach, Joachim. 1966. Das Verstehen: Grundzüge einer Geschichte des hermeneutischen Theorie im 19. Jahrhundert. Vol. I1. Tübingen: Mohr, 1926; repr. Hildesheim: Olms.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Weimann, Karl-Heinz. 1965. “Vorstufen der Sprachphilosophie Humboldts bei Bacon and Locke”. Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 841.498–508.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Hudson, Nicholas
1991.
The Individual and the Collective in Eighteenth-Century Language Theory.
Man and Nature 10
► pp. 57 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 august 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.