Vološinov and Cassirer: A case of plagiarism?

Mika Lähteenmäki
University of Jyväskylä
Summary

Recently, it has been suggested that Valentin Vološinov (1895–1936) plagiarised Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945). This claim is to be seen as grossly overstated, although Vološinov obviously benefited from Cassirer’s work on language. This article compares Vološinov’s and Cassirer’s concepts of the sign and discusses their views concerning the relation between language and reality. There are fundamental differences between their views on the nature of the sign which mainly stem from the fact that they are committed to different philosophical paradigms. Thus, the validity of the claims according to which philosophical sources of the dialogical conception of the sign can be found in Cassirer’s works should be seriously questioned.

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