Wilhelm von Humboldt biography. Wilhelm Humboldt biography

Father Alexander Georg von Humboldt [d] Mother Maria Elisabeth von Humboldt [d] Children Gabriela von Bulow [d] And Adelaide von Hedeman [d] Education

• Alma Mater Viadrina[d]
• University of Gottingen

Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt(German) Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt; 22nd of June (1767-06-22 ) - April 8, Tegel Palace, Berlin) - German philologist, philosopher, linguist, statesman, diplomat. Older brother of the scientist Alexander von Humboldt.

Combining multidirectional talents, he carried out a reform of gymnasium education in Prussia, founded a university in Berlin in 1809, and was a friend of Goethe and Schiller.

Humboldt's ideas as a historian and philosopher

Wilhelm Humboldt sought to concretize and develop Kant's philosophical teaching on the material of social history, but on a number of issues he deviated towards objective idealism. Humboldt believed that history as a science can in some sense coincide with aesthetics, and developed his theory of historical knowledge. According to it, world history is the result of the activity of a spiritual force that lies beyond the boundaries of knowledge, which cannot be understood from a causal point of view. This spiritual power manifests itself through the creative abilities and personal efforts of individuals, arising from natural necessity or need. Thus, the historical life of society is the result of the freedom and necessity of the life of individuals and the life of the whole. The understanding of the term “Spiritual culture,” later developed in cultural studies, is rooted in these ideas of Humboldt. Humboldt understood spiritual culture as religious and moral ideas that lead to the improvement of a person’s personality and, at the same time, to the improvement of social life. By his own admission, the model that inspired Humboldt's famous theory of the "formation of man" ("Bildung") was the practice of Socratic dialogue practiced at a philological seminar

In the previous issue, I talked about the outstanding German scientific traveler Alexander von Humboldt. And now we will talk about his older brother Wilhelm, no less talented and famous. “One of the greatest people in Germany,” in the words of the famous Danish linguist and historian V. Thomsen, was a man of diverse knowledge: philosopher, founder of general linguistics, political scientist, philologist, anthropologist, lawyer. For numerous in-depth research and significant contributions to science, W. Humboldt was awarded the title of Academician of the Berlin Academy. He was also active in political and social activities: ambassador, minister, reformer of the education system, founder of the University of Berlin.

Wilhelm was born (full name Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Baron von Humboldt, Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Humboldt), like his younger brother Alexander, in the family castle Tegel near Berlin. Date of birth: June 22, 1767. The brothers were educated at home. Then at the universities of Frankfurt an der Oder and Göttingen, Wilhelm studied law, politics and history. In 1789, he interrupted his studies to go to Paris and personally see the events of the French Revolution. The return consisted of a trip through Europe, or rather, mostly through Germany, visiting Mainz, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Weimar, and Jena.

Formative years

Upon completion of his higher education in 1790, William entered service as a referendar at the Supreme Court. However, he soon realized that he did not like this activity and resigned. Wilhelm von Humboldt's life, fortunately, developed in such a way that he was never forced to “pull the strap” just to earn a piece of bread. The wealth of his parents, and then an enviable inheritance, later his wife’s rich dowry and his own high positions allowed him to always do what brought satisfaction. That’s why he always worked with passion and high dedication.

In the meantime, Wilhelm decided to engage in self-education. In a letter to one of his friends, he forms his credo this way: “Nothing is more important than the highest power and the multifaceted development of individuality, and therefore the first law of true morality is “form yourself,” and only the second is “influence others through what you are".

In June 1791, Wilhelm married Caroline Elisabeth von Holveld. I even came across special biographical works dedicated to this outstanding personality. She was one of the most enlightened and smartest women of her time, providing comprehensive assistance to her husband even in his scientific research. Her salons in Berlin and Rome were brilliant, bringing together the brightest representatives of politics, science, and literature. Eight children were born into the family, but five survived. In those days, infant mortality was not uncommon.

In 1794-1797, Humboldt was engaged in teaching in Jena. At this time he became close to Schiller, became a member of his circle, and was published in the magazine he published. Then a friendship with Goethe was established. After fate separated these great Germans, correspondence between them continued for a long time. Humboldt published literary and scientific works at this time. His translations, literary critical articles, and works on philosophy and politics appeared. He studied the peculiarities of the relationship between the individual and the state. He outlined his ideas in the treatise “On the Limits of State Activity,” in which he defended the freedom of the individual from the overpowering power of the state. This work was published only 16 years after his death. Previously, censorship did not allow them to pass; the views expressed by the champion of liberalism were too free. He believed that the role of the state should only be to protect its citizens from external enemies. All other areas - economics, culture, social area - should be transferred to the citizens themselves.

In 1797-1802, Humboldt traveled a lot. The goal is to expand and deepen one’s knowledge, “the study and appreciation of human character in all its forms.” He visits France and Spain. And wherever he was, he wrote poetry to his wife every day.

Political activity

In 1802, Humboldt was appointed envoy of the Prussian court to the Vatican, where he remained for more than five years. At this time, he paid a lot of attention to the study of languages ​​and came to the conclusion that his true calling was linguistics. “I feel that over time I will devote myself even more to the study of languages ​​and that a thorough and philosophically sound comparison of several languages ​​is a task that may, perhaps, be within my reach after several years of serious work,” he wrote. And he turned out to be right. Works on linguistics not only “turned out to be within his reach,” but elevated him to the rank of outstanding linguists in the world. However, he had the opportunity to engage in scientific desk research much later, but for now he is busy with the active life of a politician.

In 1808, von Humboldt agreed to the king's invitation to take the post of director of the department of confessions and public education in the Ministry of the Interior. Enthusiastic about implementing education reform. The three-stage structure he developed: primary school - gymnasium - university - still exists today.

During this period he created the University of Berlin. According to W. Humboldt's idea, it should be free from pressure and requirements of the state, and the learning process is inextricably linked with research activities, in which students are certainly involved.

In July 1810, Humboldt was appointed ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in Vienna. At first, he believed that this post was not burdensome and would provide an opportunity to engage in scientific activities: ambassadorial duties “are so vague and uncertain that they do not particularly occupy my thoughts, and just as Rubens once painted large paintings, so I can do a lot.” But soon the political situation changes. Napoleon's defeat led to a sharp increase in political activity in Europe. Humboldt represented Prussia at congresses (Prague, Paris, Vienna), where the fate of post-Napoleonic Europe was decided. At the Congress of Vienna he showed himself to be the most active and zealous member of the Committee of German-speaking States. Showing extraordinary diplomatic skills, he achieved compromises and detente. French Foreign Minister Talleyrand, a sophisticated politician, admitted that “such statesmen (like W. Humboldt , I. D.) can be found in Europe at present no more than three or four.” From 1814 to 1818, W. Humboldt visited Frankfurt, Vienna, Paris, London, Berlin, Aachen on a diplomatic mission, participating in the implementation of the policy of restoration of Europe after the Napoleonic wars.

In April 1818, Wilhelm Humboldt received a new appointment - to the management of estate and community affairs. In this post, his most important task was to participate in the development of the draft of a new constitution. A year later, he submits a note addressed to the Minister of State Baron von Stein “On the establishment of land class constitutions in the Prussian states.” The note became not only a program for the future activities of the state, but also an expression of its political views - the assertion of civil rights and democracy.

Work in ministerial spheres increasingly did not satisfy the supporter of the progressive ideas of the Enlightenment: sentiments reigned in the highest political circles that were far from his liberal views, and he had no opportunity to influence them. As a result, Humboldt went into opposition, and in 1819 he finally retired and resigned.

Back in science

Leaving political activity, Humboldt delved into his favorite scientific research, the main one of which was linguistics. It's amazing how many languages ​​he knew! And what kind! Sanskrit, ancient Greek, Latin, ancient Egyptian and late Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese. Of course, the main European languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French. In addition - Basque, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Provençal, Czech. He was an early explorer of the indigenous languages ​​of South and North America, Indonesia and Polynesia. Even while studying the Basque language, which differs sharply from the Indo-European group, the scientist came to the conclusion that different languages ​​reflect different visions of the world among peoples. W. Humboldt's last and most important work, the three-volume study “On the Kawi Language on the Island of Java,” published posthumously (1836-1840), became a milestone in the field of linguistics. In the theoretical introduction to this work, which is entitled “On the difference in the structure of human languages ​​and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind,” Humboldt wrote: “Each language contains an original worldview. Just as an individual sound comes between an object and a person, so the whole language as a whole comes between a person and the nature that influences him...”

Humboldt's philosophy of linguistics is based on the concept of the determining influence of language on the spiritual development of a people. Humboldt developed the doctrine of language as an activity and a continuous creative process. His famous thesis “Language should be studied not as a product of activity (Ergon), but as an activity (Energia)” is one of the most frequently cited in linguistic literature.

The scientist spent the last years of his life on the Tegel estate, where he spent his childhood. He became one of the founders of the Society of Art Lovers, was involved in the arrangement of a new museum in Berlin, and published correspondence with Schiller and Goethe. These letters are considered a masterpiece of epistolary creativity and are considered among the best literary creations of the author.

The death of his beloved wife in March 1829 was a heavy blow for Humboldt. He writes that with her departure, the hand on his life clock broke. Each day of William ended with a hundred-line sonnet dedicated to Caroline. It was reminiscent of a poetic diary in which he told his departed wife about the events of the past day. 1,183 sonnets were written. His health deteriorated every year and on April 8, 1835, the great German scientist and activist died at the age of 67 in Tegel.

In front of the Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) there are monuments to Wilhelm von Humboldt and Alexander von Humboldt.

Wilhelm von Humboldt- German philologist, one of the founders of linguistics as an independent science, statesman, socio-political figure, diplomat, philosopher, major figure of German classical humanism. He adhered to the idea that the highest goal of human history is the implementation of the ideal of “humanity,” which consists in the development of the individuality of an individual person, revealing all his abilities to the maximum. Humboldt's views had a huge influence on the development of humanitarian thought of his time on the scale of not only the country, but throughout Europe.

Humboldt's homeland was Potsdam, Germany, where he was born on June 22, 1767 into the family of the Saxon court elector. Much attention was paid to the education of Wilhelm and his younger brother Alexander, who later became a famous natural scientist. In 1787, both became students at the University of Frankfurt (on the Oder); The brothers also studied at the University of Göttingen, studying history, law, and politics. Scientific activity attracted Wilhelm Humboldt; he was no less interested in real socio-political processes, but his other great passion was new trends in philosophy and literature.

After completing his education in 1789, he traveled to Paris. The impressions and observations that were accumulated in the capital of France formed the basis for the book “On the Limits of the Activities of the State,” written upon his return in 1792. However, the work, which proclaimed individual freedom and limited the functions of the state only to ensuring external security, was not allowed for publication by censorship. This period of Humboldt's biography includes an acquaintance with Schiller, and a little later - a meeting with Goethe, which developed into long-term friendships.

Humboldt quickly became known as a man with a sharp mind, comprehensively educated and became a welcome guest at the most famous salons, where he was a prominent and influential figure. In 1791 he married; his wife, Caroline von Dahereden, was considered one of the smartest and most educated representatives of the fair sex of her time and became an excellent assistant and like-minded person for him. The salon, set up in their Berlin home, acquired a brilliant reputation throughout Europe and became a center of attraction for the best minds. Wilhelm Humboldt traveled across the continent more than once, visiting Switzerland, Spain, France, and stayed for a long time in the Italian capital.

In 1801, he became resident of Prussia at the papal court in the Vatican and held this honorary position until 1810. In 1809, Humboldt acted as the founding father of the University of Berlin and from the same year became head of the capital's department of religion and education in Berlin. The tenure of a staunch supporter of humanism and enlightenment in this post was marked by a number of educational reforms - in particular, he removed the primary school from the competence of the church.

From 1810 to 1819, Humboldt's mind and energy were devoted to serving in the field of diplomacy and in important government posts. King Frederick William III entrusted him with representing Prussia at the Prague and Vienna Congresses.

Humboldt also left a bright mark in science, in particular in philology. His ideas that the language of any people is an expression of their individual worldview, determines the attitude of the people’s representatives to the world, and is an ongoing process of spiritual creativity, significantly influenced the development of linguistics. In 1832, Humboldt became an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He died in 1835, April 8; death overtook him near the German capital in the Tegel Palace.

Biography from Wikipedia

Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt(German Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt; June 22, 1767 - April 8, 1835, Tegel Palace, Berlin) - German philologist, philosopher, linguist, statesman, diplomat. The elder brother of the scientist Alexander von Humboldt.

Combining multidirectional talents, he carried out a reform of gymnasium education in Prussia, founded a university in Berlin in 1809, and was a friend of Goethe and Schiller.

One of the founders of linguistics as a science. He developed the doctrine of language as a continuous creative process and of the “internal form of language” as an expression of the individual worldview of the people. In many ways he determined the path and direction of development of German (and more broadly European) humanitarian thought of his era.

Origin

On their father's side, the Humboldt brothers came from the Pomeranian bourgeoisie. Their grandfather served as an officer in the Prussian army and was promoted to the nobility in 1738 thanks to personal merit and a request. His son Alexander Georg also served in military service. After his retirement in 1766, Alexander Georg moved to Berlin, where he married a wealthy widow, Baroness Elisabeth von Holwede (née Colombe), who came from a family of French Huguenots who fled the violence and oppression of Louis XIV. Thanks to his marriage, Alexander Georg von Humboldt became the owner of the suburban Tegel Palace and surrounding lands.

5 marks 1967 - commemorative coin of the Federal Republic of Germany, dedicated to the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt

Wilhelm von Humboldt was born on June 22, 1767 in Potsdam. The parents spared no expense on the education of their sons Wilhelm and Alexander. At the University of Frankfurt (on the Oder) and the University of Göttingen, Wilhelm thoroughly studied law, politics and history. Devoted to science, he at the same time followed with intense attention movements in the political, social and literary spheres.

In 1789, he and his teacher, the famous Campe, traveled to Paris “to attend the funeral of French despotism.” Somewhat later, he responded to the question posed by history about the mutual relationship between the state and the individual in the essay “Thoughts on an attempt to determine the boundaries of the actions of the state” ( Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen). He is here a fighter for complete personal freedom and limits the role of the state to concern for external security. This work was so at odds with traditional concepts that censorship did not allow its publication, and it appeared in print only in 1851.

Even more than political issues, he was interested in new trends in literature and philosophy. Already in 1790 in Weimar, he established strong, never-broken ties with Schiller, and later friendly relations were established between him and Goethe. Humboldt was in active correspondence with both, which was published under the titles: “Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und W. v. H." (Stuttgart, 1876) and “Goethes Briefwechsel mit den Gebrüdern von H., 1795-1832” (Lpts., 1876). His early reputation as a universally educated person made him a prominent member of all the literary salons of the time. He appears either in Berlin, in the circle of Henrietta Hertz, Rachel Levin and others, or in Erfurt and Weimar, or in Jena (1794-97), in constant communication with the Schiller circle. Since he married (1791) Caroline von Daheröden, his house became one of the most brilliant salons, where everything that was smart, talented and famous in Europe flocked. Humboldt's wife was one of the most enlightened and intelligent women of her time and provided her husband with the greatest assistance even in his scientific works.

In 1801, Wilhelm von Humboldt made an ethnolinguistic expedition to the Basque lands, visiting both the French and Spanish parts of the Basque Country. The scientific result of the expedition was the book “Basques, or observations made during a trip to Vizcaya and the French Basque regions in the spring of 1801, together with studies of the Basque language and nation and a summary of Basque grammar and vocabulary”...

The scientist died on April 8, 1835 in Tegel near Berlin. He was buried in the family crypt at the palace.

Humboldt's ideas as a historian and philosopher

Wilhelm Humboldt sought to concretize and develop Kant's philosophical teaching on the material of social history, but on a number of issues he deviated towards objective idealism. Humboldt believed that history as a science can in some sense coincide with aesthetics, and developed his theory of historical knowledge. According to it, world history is the result of the activity of a spiritual force that lies beyond the boundaries of knowledge, which cannot be understood from a causal point of view. This spiritual power manifests itself through the creative abilities and personal efforts of individuals, arising from natural necessity or need. Thus, the historical life of society is the result of the freedom and necessity of the life of individuals and the life of the whole. The understanding of the term “Spiritual culture”, later developed in cultural studies, is rooted in these ideas of Humboldt. Humboldt understood spiritual culture as religious and moral ideas that lead to the improvement of a person’s personality and, at the same time, to the improvement of social life. By his own admission, the model that inspired the famous Humboldtian theory of “human formation” (“Bildung”) was practice Socratic dialogue, practiced at the philological seminar of Friedrich August Wolf.

Humboldt's political ideas

Simultaneously with Schleiermacher, Humboldt formulated the doctrine of individuality. He said: “Every human individuality is an idea rooted in a phenomenon. In some cases this is so strikingly striking, as if the idea only then took the form of an individual in order to make its revelation in it.” Humboldt believed that in individuality lies the secret of all existence and was the first to express the idea of ​​the need for diversity. Wilhelm wrote his works about the activities of the state at the end of the 18th century, when the state principle was very strong. The state, according to Humboldt, should be limited exclusively to establishing external and internal security. Any assistance to the well-being of citizens by the state is impossible without its intervention in all areas of human life. And such interference, as Humboldt believed, would limit personal freedom and interfere with the unique development of the individual. Wilhelm saw the highest goal, which should determine the boundaries of the activities of the state, in the universal development of individuality.

Works of Wilhelm von Humboldt

• Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Gränzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen (1792) (rus. lane: On the limits of state activity. - Chelyabinsk: Sotsium, 2009. - 287 pp.)
• "On Thinking and Speech" (1795)
• “On the influence of the different nature of languages ​​on literature and spiritual development” (1821)
• "On the Tasks of the Historian" (1821)
• “On the difference in the structure of human languages ​​and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind” (1830-1835).
• Socrates and Plato on the Divine (orig. Socrates und Platon über die Gottheit). 1787-1790
• Humboldt. On the Limits of State Action, first seen in 1792. Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen, page ii. Published by E. Trewendt, 1851 (German)
• Über den Geschlechtsunterschied. 1794
• Über männliche und weibliche Form. 1795
• Outline of a Comparative Anthropology (orig. Plan einer vergleichenden Anthropologie). 1797.
• The Eighteenth Century (orig. Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert). 1797.
• Ästhetische Versuche I. - Über Goethe’s Hermann und Dorothea. 1799.
• Latium and Hellas (1806)
• Geschichte des Verfalls und Untergangs der griechischen Freistaaten. 1807-1808.
• Pindars "Olympische Oden"
• Aischylos" "Agamemnon". Translation from Greek, 1816.
• Über das vergleichende Sprachstudium in Beziehung auf die verschiedenen Epochen der Sprachentwicklung. 1820.
• Über die Aufgabe des Geschichtsschreibers. 1821.
• Researches into the Early Inhabitants of Spain with the help of the Basque language (orig. Prüfung der Untersuchungen über die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der vaskischen Sprache). 1821.
• Über die Entstehung der grammatischen Formen und ihren Einfluss auf die Ideenentwicklung. 1822.
• Upon Writing and its Relation to Speech (orig. Über die Buchstabenschrift und ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Sprachbau). 1824.
• "On the dual number" ( Uber den Dualis). 1827.
• On the languages ​​of the South Seas (orig. Über die Sprache der Südseeinseln). 1828.
• On Schiller and the Path of Spiritual Development (orig. Über Schiller und den Gang seiner Geistesentwicklung). 1830.
• Rezension von Goethes Zweitem römischem Aufenthalt. 1830.
• The Heterogeneity of Language and its Influence on the Intellectual Development of Mankind (orig. Über die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaus und seinen Einfluss auf die geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts). 1836. New edition: On Language. On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and Its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human Species, Cambridge University Press, 2nd rev. edition, 1999.
• Wilhelm von Humboldt. Selected works on linguistics. - M.: Progress, 1984. - 400 p.
• Wilhelm von Humboldt. Language and philosophy of culture. - M.: Progress, 1985. - 452 p.

Works by other authors

• Hegel, 1827. On The Episode of the Mahabharata Known by the Name Bhagavad-Gita by Wilhelm Von Humboldt.
• Joxe Azurmendi, Humboldt. Hizkuntza eta pensamendua,UEU, 2007.
• Elsina Stubb, Wilhelm Von Humboldt’s Philosophy of Language, Its Sources and Influence, Edwin Mellen Press, 2002
• John Roberts German Liberalism and Wilhelm Von Humboldt: A Reassessment, Mosaic Press, 2002
• David Sorkin, Wilhelm Von Humboldt: The Theory and Practice of Self-Formation (Bildung), 1791-1810 in: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1983), pp. 55-73
• Trabant (Jürgen), Humboldt ou le sens du langage, Mardaga, 1995.
• Trabant (Jürgen), "Sprachsinn: le sens du langage, de la linguistique et de la philosophie du langage" in La pensée dans la langue. Humboldt et après, P.U.V., 1995.
• Trabant (Jürgen), "Du génie aux gènes des langues" in Et le génie des langues? Essais et savoirs P.U.V., 2000
• Trabant (Jürgen), Traditions de Humboldt, Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l'homme, Paris, 1999.
• Trabant, (Jürgen), "Quand l’Europe oublie Herder: Humboldt et les langues", Revue Germanique Internationale, 2003, 20, 153-165 (mise à jour avril 2005)
• Underhill, James W. "Humboldt, Worldview and Language", Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
• Underhill, James W. "Ethnolinguistics and Cultural Concepts: truth, love, hate & war", Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Memory

In 1935, the International Astronomical Union named a crater on the visible side of the Moon named after Wilhelm Humboldt.

Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1767–1835), German philosopher, philologist, art critic, jurist and statesman.

A special place in linguistic comparativism of the first half of the 19th century. occupied by the greatest linguophilosopher and language theorist, founder of theoretical linguistics and linguistic philosophy of language, Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835). He was noted for his brilliant education, an unusually wide range of interests and activities (numerous languages ​​of the world and their typology, classical philology, philosophy, literary criticism, art theory, public law, diplomacy, etc.; translations from Aeschylus and Pindar). He actively participated in state and intellectual life, communicated with Goethe, Schiller and other spiritual leaders of that time. Together with his brother Alexander von Humboldt, he founded the University of Berlin. W. von Humboldt preached the need for comprehensive and harmonious development of the individual and the entire human race and condemned utilitarianism and narrow specialization in university education. W. von Humboldt was a representative of synthetic knowledge, while his predecessors (with the exception of I. Herder) acted as representatives of analytical knowledge.

The linguistic concept of W. von Humboldt was a reaction to the ahistorical and mechanistic concept of language of the 17th and 18th centuries. It was sourced from I. Herder’s ideas about the nature and origin of language, about the relationship between language, thinking and the “spirit of the people,” as well as typological classifications of the languages ​​of Fr. and A.V. Shlegel. The formation of W. von Humboldt's views was also influenced by the ideas of German classical philosophy (I. Kant, I.V. Ggte, G.W.F. Hegel, F. Schiller, F.W. Schelling, F.G. Jacobi). W. von Humboldt inspired one of the movements in German philosophy in the 1st half of the 19th century. philosophical anthropology.

The main theoretical and methodological principles of the concept of W. von Humboldt are as follows:

a) synthesis of naturalistic and activity approaches (language as an organism of the spirit and as an activity of the spirit);

b) dialectical correlation of opposite principles (in the form of antinomies);

c) a systemic and holistic view of language;

d) priority of the dynamic, procedural-genetic approach over the structural-static one;

e) interpretation of language as an organism generating itself;

f) the priority of a timeless (panchronic or achronic) view of language over the historical analysis of language change over time;

g) the priority of studying living speech over the description of the linguistic organism;

h) a combination of interest in the real diversity of existing languages ​​and in language as the common heritage of humanity;

i) an attempt to imagine languages ​​in an ideal plan as steps towards the perfect formation of language as such; i) refusal to describe language only from within itself, without connections with other types of human activity;

j) a combination of a philosophically abstract view of language with a scrupulous scientific study of it.

In the formation of a new linguistic methodology, the articles “On Thinking and Speech” (a reaction to G. Fichte’s speech “On the Linguistic Ability and the Origin of Language”; 1795), “Latius and Hellas” (where all the motives of later creativity are already presented; 1806) played a huge role ), "On the comparative study of languages ​​in relation to different eras of their development" (formulation of the objectives of a different - in comparison with the understanding of F. Bopp and J. Grimm - approach to the construction of comparative grammar; conviction in the original complexity and systematicity of language; call for study language as a phenomenon of both natural science and intellectual-teleological; 1820), “On the influence of the different nature of languages ​​on literature and spiritual development” (criticism of the understanding of language as a nomenclature of ready-made signs for concepts; unfinished work), “On the emergence of grammatical forms and their influence on development of ideas" (a report in which the idea of ​​the conditioning of thinking by language was put forward; published in 1820-1822) and a particularly large theoretical introduction to the theoretical work "On the Kawi language on the island of Java" (1836 - 1840), which has the independent title "On the difference the structure of human languages ​​and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind" (printed separately in 1907).

W. von Humboldt came up with the idea of ​​​​building a “comparative anthropology”, which includes the theory of language as a tool for viewing “the highest and deepest spheres and the entire diversity of the world”, “approaching the solution to the mystery of man and the character of peoples”.

He has his own understanding of the methods and goals of linguistic comparativism, which, in his opinion, is called upon to seek the deep origins of language not in the material conditions of life, but in the spiritual sphere. He understands the linguistic ability not only as a unique gift of a person, but also as his essential characteristic. He affirms the original unity of language and thinking, language and culture. W. von Humboldt is convinced that language does not develop gradually along the path of complexity and improvement, but appears immediately as an integral and complex system inherent in a person. He expresses the idea of ​​the existence of language as an unconscious form and as an intellectual activity, manifested in acts of “transforming the world into thoughts.” He argues that thinking depends on language, which forms an intermediate world between external reality and thinking. Different languages ​​qualify as different worldviews.

W. von Humboldt puts forward a three-fold scheme of the individual - people - humanity, arguing that individual subjectivity in comprehending the world through language is sublated in the collective subjectivity of a given linguistic community, and national subjectivity - in the subjectivity of the entire human race, united not on the biological, but on the cultural ethical and social basis.

He postulates the identity of language and national spirit, the spirit of the people. He points out that "the true definition of language can only be genetic." The genetic element is stated more in relation to speech than to language. Language is understood as “every process of speaking, but in the true and essential sense ... as if it were the totality of all speaking.” The creative, “energetic” (i.e., activity-based) nature of language is persistently emphasized. Language is interpreted as an activity, the main one in relation to all other types of human activity, as the activity of the human spirit (energeia), in which the fusion of concept with sound is carried out, the transformation of sound into a living expression of thought, and not as a dead product of this activity (ergon).

Two functions are attributed to language: a) the dismemberment of the formless substance of sound and thought and the formation of an articulated sound and linguistic concept; b) combining them into a single whole until complete interpenetration.

The form of language is understood as a constant and uniform principle in the creative activity of the spirit, taken in the totality of its systemic connections and representing the individual product of a given people. Language distinguishes between matter and form, external (sound and grammatical) and internal (content) form.

Of particular importance for subsequent periods of development of linguistics was the interpretation of the internal form of language, which determines the way of connecting sounds and thoughts, as language itself. It was argued that each language has its own internal form.

The purpose of language is seen in “transforming the world into thoughts,” in expressing thoughts and feelings, in ensuring the process of mutual understanding, in the development of a person’s inner strengths. Each individual language is seen as a tool for a specific interpretation of the world in accordance with the worldview inherent in this language, an instrument for forming a picture of the world for the people who speak it. Language is credited with the function of regulating human behavior.

Followers of W. von Humboldt (H. Steinthal, A.A. Potebnya, P.A. Florensky, A.F. Losev) state the following antinomies, illustrating the dialectical connection of two mutually exclusive and mutually conditioning principles: activity - objectivity (energeia - ergon, vitality - thingness), individual - people (individual - collective), freedom - necessity, speech - understanding, speech - language, language - thinking, stable - mobile, natural - spontaneous, impressionistic (temporary, individual) - monumental, continuous - discrete , objective - subjective.

H. Steinthal subsequently systematized the scattered statements of W. von Humboldt about the existence of an “ideal grammar” lying between logic and grammar, the categories of which do not belong to the language proper, but find a more complete or incomplete expression in the categories of “real grammar”, which has both general and and private sections.

W. von Humboldt lays the foundation for a meaningful typology of languages, based on the concept of internal form (taken from J. Harris). He recognizes the uniqueness of each language, both in terms of form and content. In terms of the content of the language itself, not only the idiomatic (idioethnic), but also the universal component are distinguished. In general, he follows the ideas of J. Harris, but offers a different way of distinguishing between the idioethnic and the universal. “Common kinship” (i.e. typological proximity) is understood as “identity of goals and means.”

The universal is interpreted as the basis of the ability to multilingualism, the possibility of adequate translation from language to language. All types of language are recognized as equal in their capabilities; none of the language types can be considered original.

Following the Schlegel brothers, languages ​​are distinguished between isolating, agglutinating and inflectional. In the class of agglutinating languages, there is a subclass of languages ​​with a specific sentence syntax - incorporating ones. The possibility of "pure" language types is denied.

The ideas of W. von Humboldt more or less excited many scientists in the 19th and 20th centuries. Attempts to comprehend and implement the ideas of W. von Humboldt in the description of languages ​​took place first in Germany (in the works of H. Steinthal, partly W. Wundt, E. Husserl, L. Weisgerber), then in Russia (in the works of A.A. Potebnya, G.G. Shpet, P.A. Florensky, A.F. Losev). The so-called Humboldtianism has emerged in a number of varieties, which is characterized as a set of views on language and methods of studying it, formed in line with the philosophical and linguistic program of W. von Humboldt. Humboldtianism presupposes an anthropological approach to language, its study in close connection with the consciousness and thinking of man, his culture and spiritual life.

But in the second half of the 19th century. First of all, the universal component is cut off, the presence of which was recognized by logical grammar and rejected by psychological grammar. In accordance with the spirit of this time, W. von Humboldt’s attempts to synthesize logical and psychological approaches to language were not continued; the Humboldtians completely switched to the position of psychologism.

In the 20th century W. von Humboldt's ideas were developed in the so-called neo-Humboldtianism.

Biography

Wilhelm von Humboldt (German Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Humboldt; June 22, 1767 - April 8, 1835, Tegel Palace, Berlin) - German philologist, philosopher, linguist, statesman, diplomat. The elder brother of the scientist Alexander von Humboldt.

Bibliography

Main works:
* “On thinking and speech (Uber Denken und Sprechen)”
* “On the comparative study of languages ​​in relation to different eras of their development (Uber das vergleichende Sprachstudium in Beziehung auf die verschiedenen Epochen der Sprachentwicklung)”
* “On the influence of the different nature of languages ​​on literature and spiritual development (Uber den Einfluss des verschiedenen Charakters der Sprachen auf Literatur und Geistesbildung)”
* “On the emergence of grammatical forms and their influence on the development of ideas (Uber das Entstehen der grammatischen Formen und ihren Einfluss auf die Ideenentwicklung)”
* “On alphabetic writing and its connection with the structure of language (Uber die Buchstabenschrift und ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Sprachbau)”
* “On the dual number (Uber den Dualis)”
On the limits of state activity
Selected works on linguistics

Interesting Facts

Origin

* On their father's side, the Humboldt brothers came from the Pomeranian bourgeoisie. Their grandfather served as an officer in the Prussian army and in 1738 was promoted to the nobility thanks to personal merit and a request. His son Alexander Georg was also in military service. After leaving service in 1766, Alexander Georg married a wealthy widow of Huguenot origin, Elisabeth von Holved, née Colombe, and thanks to this became the owner of the Tegel Palace and surrounding lands.

Biography

German philosopher, philologist, art critic, jurist and statesman. Born into a noble family. On their father's side, the Humboldt brothers came from the Pomeranian bourgeoisie. Their grandfather served as an officer in the Prussian army and in 1738 was promoted to the nobility thanks to personal merit and a request. His son Alexander Georg also served in military service. After leaving service in 1766, Alexander Georg married a wealthy widow of Huguenot origin, Elisabeth von Holved, née Colombe, and thanks to this he became the owner of the Tegel Palace and surrounding lands. The parents spared no expense on the education of their sons Wilhelm and Alexander. At the University of Frankfurt (on the Oder) and the University of Göttingen, Wilhelm thoroughly studied law, politics and history. Devoted to science, he was also interested in politics and literature. In 1790 in Weimar he met Schiller, and later Goethe. Humboldt was in active correspondence with both. His early reputation as a universally educated person made him a prominent member of all the literary salons of the time. He appears either in Berlin, in the circle of Henrietta Hertz, Rachel Levin and others, then in Erfurt and Weimar, or in Jena, in the Schiller circle. Since he married Caroline Dahereden, his house became one of the most brilliant salons, where everything that was smart, talented and famous in Europe flocked. Humboldt's wife was one of the most enlightened and intelligent women of her time and helped her husband in all matters. Wilhelm von Humboldt traveled a lot. He often visited France, Switzerland and Spain and lived in Rome for quite a long time. Humboldt is considered the founder of the philosophy of language, and in many ways of the European tradition of theoretical linguistics. The linguo-philosophical system he developed is based on Kantian ideas, although it does not contain direct borrowings, but rather reflects the general atmosphere of spiritual quest in Germany at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. His main work in this area is considered to be the essay “On the Difference in the Structure of Human Languages ​​and Its Influence on the Spiritual Development of Mankind,” written in 1830–1835 - the introductory part to the remaining unfinished three-volume work “On the Kawi Language on the Island of Java,” posthumously published in 1836–1859 . In this work, in particular, the concept of the internal form of language is introduced. On Humboldt's initiative, the first department of comparative linguistics in Europe was founded, headed by 27-year-old F. Bopp, one of the founders of comparative historical linguistics. Another follower of Humboldt, G. Steinthal, became the founder of the psychological trend in linguistics. In Russia, Humboldt's linguo-philosophical views influenced, first of all, representatives of the Kharkov linguistic school (A.A. Potebnya, D.N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, 1853–1920, etc.), as well as the phenomenological concept of G.G. Shpeta. Many of Humboldt’s statements, and above all his famous thesis “Language should be studied not as a product of activity (Ergon), but as an activity (Energeia),” are now among the most frequently cited in linguistic literature. In addition to linguo-philosophical and linguistic studies, Humboldt's interests included literary criticism, classical philology, art theory, and state law. The scientist died on April 8, 1835 in Tegel near Berlin.

* June 22, 1767 Born in Potsdam into a Prussian noble family.
* 1787 Entered the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, where he studied law.
* 1788 Listened to lectures on philology and history at the University of Göttingen.
* 1791 Married Caroline Dahereden
* 1794 - 1797 Lived in Jena, where he met Schiller and Goethe. Spent four years in Paris studying French culture. Traveled throughout Spain and the Basque provinces. At this time, his serious passion for the languages ​​and cultures of various peoples began, data about which he later drew, among other things, from the materials of his younger brother Alexander, a traveler and natural scientist.
* August 1801 Return to Berlin.
* 1801 – 1819 He held various positions in the public service in Prussia, including the position of envoy plenipotentiary to the Vatican, Vienna, London, Prague, Paris, and then minister of religious affairs and education. While in this post, Humboldt implemented a reform of higher and secondary education in Prussia.
* 1809 Founded the University of Berlin.
* 1819 Left public service to devote himself entirely to science; lived and worked on his family estate Tegel (now a district of Berlin), periodically making presentations at the Berlin Academy. Eleven years later he re-joined the State Council.
* April 8, 1835 Died in Tegel near Berlin.

Biography

German philosopher, linguist, statesman, diplomat, one of the founders of the University of Berlin (1810). Leading representative of humanism and ideas of humanity in German idealism. G.'s worldview organically combined such basic principles as totality (in the artistic depiction of life) and universality. Herder’s ideas about the integrity of the world-historical process, about peoples as living organisms, about the inclusion of the activity of an individual in the endless progressive development of society as a prerequisite for the study of history were creatively reworked by G., along with the aesthetic concepts of Goethe and Schiller, focused on classical Greece as the embodiment of the ideal. The historian, according to G., must penetrate into the internal content and meaning of history in order to avoid the danger of being a simple registrar of historical results. G.'s works of the 1790-1800s on ancient Greek culture combined the problems of history and aesthetics.

In the philosophy of history, G. processed the experience of the Great French Revolution; his early work, “Ideas for Experience Defining the Boundaries of State Activity” (partially published in 1792, in full in 1851), is a discussion of political conditions designed to ensure the free development of the individual and the people. According to G., the tasks of the state are to protect external borders and ensure law and order in the country, subject to the provision of all opportunities for free and liberated national and individual development. G.'s hope to achieve the ideal through social reforms, education, and self-improvement determined the increasing role of pedagogical motives in his work.

As a result of the educational reform initiated by G., a humanistic gymnasium was created in its classical form. G. sought to overcome the dualism of matter and idea, material and form; from their fusion arises, according to G., “organization” - in the physical world, “character” - in the intellectual and moral world. “The secret of all existence” lies, according to G., in individuality (personality, people). The entire philosophy of culture can be considered as a characterology of cultural forms that express the original internal form of the “spirit of the people.” The moment of such comparative characterology (G. himself understood it as “anthropology”) was also “comparative linguistics,” one of the founders of which was G. (“On the comparative study of languages...”, 1820).

The treatise “On the difference in the structure of human languages ​​and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind” (published as an introduction to the work “On the Kawi language on the island of Java”, vol. 1-3, 1836-1839) emphasizes the creative nature of language: language is not so much a product of activity, something created, as much as the activity itself, i.e. a continuously ongoing process of generating meaning, “an organ that forms thought,” a product of the “linguistic consciousness of a nation”: in the very structure of language (its “internal form”) a certain view of the world (“worldview”) of a particular people is embodied. A linguist must comprehend language as a product of the creativity of the national spirit. G. was essentially the founder of the philosophy of language as an independent discipline and had a huge influence on the development of linguistics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Accepting the philosophical teachings of Immanuel Kant, G. sought to concretize and develop it based on the material of social history.

According to G.'s theory of historical knowledge, world history is the result of the activity of a spiritual force that lies beyond the boundaries of knowledge, and therefore it cannot be understood from a causal point of view. History as a science can, to a certain extent, be replaced by aesthetics. In his teaching on language, G. proposed a method of comparative historical study of languages ​​that turned out to be very valuable.

Biography

Life

He was born in Potsdam, Margraviate of Brandenburg, on June 22, 1767. Humboldt's father was a baron and his mother was middle-class. Her ancestors included French Huguenots, Germans and Scots.

He studied in Frankfurt, Jena, Berlin and Göttingen. During his studies, Humboldt was greatly influenced by the pedagogical principles of Johann Pestalozzi.

In June 1791 he married Caroline von Elisabeth von Holved and became the owner of Tegel Palace. Humboldt's wife was one of the most enlightened and intelligent women of her time and assisted her husband even in his scientific works.

In Jena (1794-1797) he was a member of Friedrich Schiller's circle. After traveling through Spain and France, during which Humboldt became interested in philology, he was appointed Prussian Resident Minister in Rome (1802-1808). As a result of his successes in the diplomatic field, Humboldt was appointed ambassador to Vienna in 1812 at the final stage of the struggle against Napoleon.

At one time he was also a successful Prussian Minister of Education (1809-1810).

From 1810 to 1819, Humboldt served as minister in Vienna, London and Berlin. However, the reactionary policies of the Prussian government forced him to abandon political life in 1819. He resigned as a sign of protest against the prevailing spirit of reaction. From that time on, he devoted himself exclusively to literature and scientific work. He died in Tegel on April 8, 1835.

Highlight

His younger brother Alexander von Humboldt was an equally famous naturalist and scientist.

Wilhelm von Humboldt was a friend of Goethe and Schiller.

His most interesting works, other than those dealing with language, are his letters to Schiller, published in 1830.

Under the influence of Romanticism, Humboldt became almost a mystic, emphasizing the supra-individual and historically determined nature of citizenship and viewing individual nationalities as part of the universal spiritual and divine life.

Achievements

Humboldt was a German linguist, diplomat, philosopher and educational reformer.

He is particularly renowned as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of language and to the theory and practice of education.

He had a great influence on the development of comparative linguistics, and also made significant contributions to the philosophy of language. Humboldt developed the doctrine of language as an activity and a continuous creative process. He was the first to state that the character and structure of a language express the inner life, culture and knowledge of its speakers, and the languages ​​themselves should differ from each other in the same way, and to the same extent, as those who use them. He also suggested that people perceive the world through the prism of language.

In addition, Humboldt conducted an in-depth study of the Basque language and came to the conclusion that it is one of the most capacious and important languages. His philological works on the ancient language of Kawi on the island of Java, published posthumously (1836-1840), became milestones in the field of linguistics.

According to Humboldt, world history is the result of the activity of a spiritual force that lies beyond knowledge, which cannot be understood from a causal point of view. This spiritual power manifests itself through the creative abilities and personal efforts of individuals.

As Prussian Minister of Education (1809-1810), he completely reformed the school system, mainly based on the ideas of Pestalozzi. At the same time, he sent Prussian teachers to Switzerland to study Pestalozzi's methods. He was one of the founders of the Friedrich Wilhelm University (now Humboldt University or Berlin University) in Berlin. Humboldt's pedagogical ideas had a great influence on European and American primary education.

He also found time for literary work. In 1816 he published a translation of Aeschylus's Agamemnon, and in 1817 amendments and additions to the Mithridates Adelung, a famous collection of samples of various languages ​​and dialects of the world. His books also contain poetry, essays on aesthetic topics and other writings.

Main works

Ideas for the experience of determining the boundaries of activity (Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen) (1791), Spheres and responsibilities of government (1792), On thinking and speech (1795), Studies in the inhabitants of Spain using the Basque language ( 1821), On the difference in the structure of human languages ​​and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind (1830-1835), On the influence of the different nature of languages ​​on literature and spiritual development (1821).

HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC TEACHINGS (V. M. Alpatov, http://project.phil.spbu.ru/lib/data/ru/alpatov/humboldt.html)

Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) was one of the greatest theoretical linguists in world science. Regarding his role in linguistics, V. A. Zvegintsev wrote: “Having put forward an original concept of the nature of language and raising a number of fundamental problems, which are currently in the center of lively discussions, he, like an unconquered mountain peak, rises above the heights that have been achieved reach other researchers."

W. von Humboldt was a many-sided man with varied interests. He was a Prussian statesman and diplomat, held ministerial posts, and played a significant role at the Congress of Vienna, which determined the structure of Europe after the defeat of Napoleon. He founded the University of Berlin, which now bears the names of him and his brother, the famous naturalist and traveler A. von Humboldt. He wrote works on philosophy, aesthetics and literary criticism, legal sciences, etc. His works on linguistics are not so large in volume, but he entered the history of science primarily as a linguist-theorist.

The time when W. von Humboldt worked was the heyday of German classical philosophy; At this time, such great thinkers as W. von Humboldt’s senior contemporary I. Kant and G. Hegel, who belonged to the same generation as W. von Humboldt, worked. The question of the connection between Humboldt's theory and certain philosophical concepts, in particular those of I. Kant, is interpreted differently by historians of science. However, one thing is certain: the influence on the scientist of the general philosophical atmosphere of the era, which contributed to the consideration of large, cardinal issues of theory. At the same time, the era also affected the scientist’s scientific style: he was not faced with the task of building a logically consistent theory or proving each of its provisions; Requirements of this kind appeared in linguistics later. Often, W. von Humboldt's philosophical manner of reasoning does not seem very clear to the modern reader, especially when it comes to his main linguistic work. However, behind complexly stated and in no way proven reasoning lies a deep content, often very relevant for modern science. Along with undoubtedly outdated theses, we see in W. von Humboldt the formulation and solution, albeit in a rudimentary form, of many problems to which the science of language subsequently came again.

W. von Humboldt was mainly engaged in linguistics in the last decade and a half of his life, after retiring from active government and diplomatic activities. One of the first works was his report “On the comparative study of languages ​​in relation to different eras of their development”, read at the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1820. Somewhat later, another of his works appeared - “On the emergence of grammatical forms and their influence on the development of ideas” . In the last years of his life, the scientist worked on the work “On the Kawi Language on the Island of Java,” which he did not have time to complete. His introductory part, “On the difference in the structure of human languages ​​and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind,” was written, published posthumously in 1848. This is certainly the main linguistic work of W. von Humboldt, in which his theoretical concept is most fully outlined. The work immediately became very famous, and a decade later its Russian translation appeared, although it was not sufficiently adequate. V. A. Zvegintsev’s anthology includes the report “On the comparative study of languages ​​in relation to different eras of their development” and fragments from his main work. Finally, in 1984, W. von Humboldt’s book “Selected Works on Linguistics” was published, which for the first time included Russian translations of all his main linguistic works.

In two earlier works of W. Humboldt, primarily in the article “On the comparative study of languages ​​in relation to different eras of their development,” the scientist expresses ideas related to the so-called stage concept of language. These ideas were based on the analysis of a significant number of languages ​​for that time; in particular, on the basis of materials collected by his brother, he was the first among theoretical linguists to study the languages ​​of the American Indians.

W. von Humboldt needed the comparative study of languages ​​not to clarify linguistic kinship (he highly valued the work of F. Bopp, but he himself was not involved in comparative studies of this type), but also not simply to identify what is common and different in language structures, as in the typology of the later time. For him it was necessary to identify the general patterns of the historical development of the world's languages. He, like all his contemporaries, understood linguistics as a historical science, but for him the history of languages ​​was not reduced to the history of language families.

In connection with the three stages of development he identified, W. von Humboldt identified “three aspects for delimiting the study of languages.” The first stage is the period of the origin of languages. Having mastered the material of many languages ​​of the so-called primitive peoples, the scientist clearly realized that “not a single language has yet been discovered that is below the limit of the established grammatical structure. No language has ever been caught at the moment of the formation of its forms.” Moreover, there is no direct evidence about the origin of the language. W. von Humboldt refused any detailed hypotheses in the spirit of the 18th century. about the origin of language, assuming only that “language cannot arise except immediately and suddenly,” that is, the origin of language from something that preceded it - a spasmodic transition from one state to another. At the first stage, “the primary but complete formation of the organic structure of the language” occurs.

The second stage is associated with the formation of languages, the formation of their structure; its study “cannot be clearly distinguished” from the first stage study. As noted above, this stage is also inaccessible to direct observation, however, data about it can be supplemented based on differences in the structures of certain languages. The formation of languages ​​continues until the “state of stability”, after which a fundamental change in the linguistic system is no longer possible: “Like the globe that went through enormous catastrophes before the seas, mountains and rivers acquired their true relief, but internally remained almost unchanged , so language has a certain limit of completeness of organization, after reaching which neither its organic structure nor its structure undergo any changes... If the language has already acquired its structure, then the most important grammatical forms no longer undergo any changes; a language that does not know differences in gender, case, passive or middle voice will no longer fill these gaps.”

According to W. von Humboldt, languages ​​follow a fundamentally single path of development, but a “state of stability” can be achieved at different stages. Here he developed ideas that existed before him about the stages of development of languages, reflecting different levels of development of certain peoples. Here the scientist’s position turns out to be somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, he warns against establishing a fundamental gap between the levels of development of the languages ​​of “cultured” and “primitive” peoples: “Even the so-called crude and barbaric dialects have everything necessary for perfect use”; “The experience of translation from various languages, as well as the use of the most primitive and undeveloped language in initiation into the most secret religious revelations, shows that, even with varying accuracy, every thought can be expressed in any language.” On the other hand, he definitely writes: “The Greek language, without a doubt, has reached the highest perfection in its structure” (meaning ancient Greek). In the article “On the Emergence of Grammatical Forms and Their Influence on the Development of Ideas,” from which the last quotation is taken, W. von Humboldt seeks to identify a scale on which languages ​​that have reached a “state of stability” at one level or another can be ranked (he also admits the possibility that that some languages ​​are still developing and have not reached a “state of stability” and will only achieve it in the future).

At this point, W. von Humboldt developed ideas expressed shortly before by two other German thinkers belonging to the same generation - the brothers August and Friedrich Schlegel. They introduced the concepts of amorphous (later renamed insulating), agglutinative and inflectional languages; these concepts, which later became purely linguistic, were associated by the Schlegel brothers and then by W. von Humboldt with the stages of development of languages ​​and peoples.

W. von Humboldt identifies four stages (stages) of language development: “At the lowest level, grammatical designation is carried out using figures of speech, phrases and sentences... At the second stage, grammatical designation is carried out using a stable word order and using words with an unstable real and formal meaning ... At the third level, grammatical designation is carried out with the help of analogues of forms... At the highest level, grammatical designation is carried out with the help of genuine forms, inflections and purely grammatical forms.” It is not difficult to see that the last three steps correspond to the isolating, agglutinative and inflectional structure (“analogues of forms” are separated from “genuine forms” by the fact that in the first “the connection ... of the components is not yet strong enough, the points of connection are noticeable. The resulting mixture has not yet become one whole” , that is, we are clearly talking about agglutination). The stage difference is directly associated with the degree of spiritual development: “The first, and most essential, of what the spirit requires from language is not confusion, but a clear distinction between thing and form, subject and relationship... However, such a distinction occurs only with the formation of genuine grammatical forms by inflection or grammatical words... with sequential designation of grammatical forms. In every language that has only analogues of forms, a material component remains in the grammatical notation, which must be purely formal.”

True, immediately W. von Humboldt is forced to admit that this scheme hardly fits into the Chinese language, which, in his opinion, constitutes “the most unusual example”; another similar example was the ancient Egyptian language. It turns out that “two of the most unusual peoples were able to reach a high stage of intellectual development, possessing languages ​​completely or mostly devoid of grammatical forms.” However, W. von Humboldt is not inclined to consider these examples as a refutation of his point of view: “Where the human spirit acts under a combination of favorable conditions and a happy tension of its forces, it in any case achieves the goal, even if it has taken a long and difficult path to get there. The difficulties are not diminished because the spirit has to overcome them.” Still, the languages ​​“possessing a true structure of grammatical forms” include, according to W. von Humboldt, Sanskrit, Semitic languages ​​and, finally, the classical languages ​​of Europe with Greek at the top.

The position of the scientist turns out to be not entirely integral here. On the one hand, in this article he poses an important and still relevant problem of describing “exotic” languages ​​in their own categories, without Europeanization: “Since the study of an unknown language is approached from the position of a more well-known native language or Latin, then a method is chosen for a foreign language designations of grammatical relations, adopted in a number of languages... In order to avoid mistakes, it is necessary to study the language in all its originality, so that by accurately dividing its parts it is possible to determine with the help of which specific form in a given language, in accordance with its structure, each grammatical relation is denoted.” In this regard, he examines some Spanish and Portuguese grammars of Indian languages, showing that, for example, they refer to something that does not correspond to the European infinitive as an infinitive. But on the other hand, he believes that “the spirit requires from language” those qualities that are specific to inflectional, primarily classical, languages. During the time of W. von Humboldt, the ideas that came from the Renaissance about ancient culture as the most “wise” and perfect were still strong; after the discovery of Sanskrit, the same perfection began to be seen in ancient Indian culture. There was also objective “proof” of this approach: the maximum morphological complexity truly characteristic of Sanskrit or ancient Greek compared to most languages ​​of the world.

W. von Humboldt also dealt with typological problems in his main linguistic work. There, based on the study of Indian languages, he identified, along with the three types of the Schlegel brothers, another language type - the incorporating one. After W. von Humboldt, the staged typological concept dominated European science for several decades. However, many of its provisions could not be tactically proven. This applied not only to ideas about what “the spirit demands from language,” but also to the thesis that each language reached the “limit of completeness of organization” (the analogy with the globe, which corresponded to the ideas of the times of W. von Humboldt, was also rejected by subsequent science) . As will be shown later, the stage concept lost its influence already in the second half of the 19th century. and left linguistics, except for the unsuccessful attempt to revive it by N. Ya. Marr. And at the same time, something remains. The very concepts of agglutinative, inflectional, isolating (amorphous) and incorporating languages, as well as the associated concepts of agglutination, incorporation, etc., in spite of everything, have always remained in the arsenal of the science of language. The Schlegel brothers and Humboldt were able to discover some essential features of linguistic structures. The question of the patterns of development of the linguistic system, first posed by W. von Humboldt, remains important and serious even now, although modern science solves it not so straightforwardly. And finally, the very idea of ​​structural comparison of languages, regardless of their family ties, formed the basis of one of the most important linguistic disciplines - linguistic typology.

Let us return to the report of W. von Humboldt “On the comparative study of languages ​​in relation to different eras of their development.” The third and final stage of linguistic history begins from the moment when the language reached the “limit of completeness of organization.” The language is no longer developing, but it is not degrading either (this kind of idea appeared later). However, in the organic structure of language and its structure, “how are living creatures? spirit,” a more subtle improvement of language can occur ad infinitum.” “Through those created to express more subtle things? branches of concepts, addition, internal restructuring of the structure of words, their meaningful connection, whimsical use of the original meaning of words, accurately captured selection of individual forms, eradication of the superfluous, smoothing of rare sounds, a language that at the time of its formation is poor, underdeveloped and insignificant if fate bestows it with his favor, he will acquire a new world of concepts and a hitherto unknown brilliance of eloquence.” At this stage of history are, in particular, the modern languages ​​of Europe.

The study of language at this stage is the subject of historical linguistics proper. Improving the language is closely related to the historical development of the corresponding people. At the same time, here too it is possible and necessary to compare languages. Only based on the material of languages ​​at the same stage of development, “can we answer the general question of how the whole diversity of languages ​​is generally connected with the process of the origin of the human race.” Already here W. von Humboldt rejects the idea that a person’s ideas about the world are independent of his language. The different division of the world by different languages, as the scientist noted, “is revealed by comparing a simple word with a simple concept... Of course, it is far from indifferent whether one language uses descriptive means where another language expresses it in one word, without resorting to grammatical forms... The law of division will inevitably be violated if what is represented as unity in the concept does not appear as such in expression, and all the real reality of the individual word disappears for the concept that lacks such expression.” Already in this relatively early work, W. von Humboldt states: “Thinking does not simply depend on language in general, because to a certain extent it is determined by each individual language.” Here the so-called hypothesis of linguistic relativity has already been formulated, put forward by linguists, in particular, B. Whorf, and in the 20th century.

Here W. von Humboldt describes what language is. He points to its collective nature: “Language is not an arbitrary creation of an individual, but always belongs to the whole people; later generations receive it from past generations.” The following formulation is also very important: “Languages ​​are not only a means of expressing already known reality, but, moreover, also a means of cognition of previously unknown reality. Their difference is not only the difference in sounds and signs, but also the difference in the worldviews themselves. This is the meaning and ultimate goal of all language research." As G. V. Ramishvili, a commentator on V. von Humboldt, notes, it is more accurate to speak in Russian not about worldview (this term has a different established meaning), but about worldview.

So, if comparing languages ​​at the stage of their formation is a typology, then comparing languages ​​at the stage of their improvement is, first of all, a comparison of “worldviews”, pictures of the world created with the help of languages. This kind of comparative research continues to be conducted in our time; Moreover, the science of language began to seriously approach problems of this kind only in very recent years. In many ways, this discipline is still a matter of the future: despite a significant number of facts and observations, a general theory for comparing linguistic pictures of the world has not yet been created.

Now we should consider the scientist’s main linguistic work, “On the differences in the structure of human languages ​​and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind.” As he himself pointed out, this work was supposed to become a theoretical introduction to the remaining unrealized plan for a specific description of the language of ancient Javanese written monuments.

The primary and indefinable concept for W. Humboldt is “human spiritual power,” specifically manifested in the form of the “spirit of the people.” He writes: “The division of humanity into peoples and tribes and the difference in its languages ​​and dialects, of course, are closely related, but at the same time, both directly depend on a third phenomenon of a higher order - the action of human spiritual power, which always appears in new and often in more perfect forms... The manifestation of human spiritual power, which has been accomplished to varying degrees and in different ways over the course of thousands of years in the space of the earth’s circle, is the highest goal of the entire movement of the spirit, the final idea, which must clearly flow from the world-historical process.” Just as “language in general” is inextricably linked with “human spiritual power”, so each specific language is connected with the “spirit of the people”: “The language... with all the finest threads of its roots has grown together... with the power of the national spirit, and the stronger the influence of the spirit on the language, the more natural and the development of the latter is richer. In all its strict interweaving, it is only a product of the linguistic consciousness of a nation, and therefore the main questions about the beginnings and inner life of language - and it is here that we come to the origins of the most important sound differences - cannot be properly answered at all without rising to the point of view spiritual strength and national identity." W. von Humboldt does not give either a definition of a people or a definition of a separate language, but he constantly points out their inseparability: a language, in contrast to a dialect, on the one hand, and a language family, on the other, is the property of an individual people, and a people is a multitude of people speaking the same language. In the first half of the 19th century. This point of view also had a clear political and ideological meaning: there was a struggle for the unification of Germany, in which Prussia played the leading role, and one of the justifications for this struggle was the idea of ​​​​the unity of the German-speaking nation.

According to W. von Humboldt, language is inseparable from human culture and represents its most important component: “Language is closely intertwined with the spiritual development of humanity and accompanies it at every stage of its local progress or regression, reflecting every stage of culture.” Compared to other types of cultures, language is least connected with consciousness: “Language arises from such depths of human nature that one can never see in it the intention of a work, the creation of peoples. It is characterized by an amateur element that is obvious to us, although inexplicable in its essence, and in this regard it is not at all a product of anyone’s activity, but an involuntary emanation of the spirit, not the creation of peoples, but the gift that has been given to them, their inner destiny. They use it without knowing how it was built.” The idea of ​​a completely unconscious development of language and the impossibility of interfering with it was later developed by F. de Saussure and other linguists.

A person can neither think nor develop without language: “The creation of language is determined by the internal need of humanity. Language is not just an external means of communication between people, maintaining social connections, but is inherent in the very nature of man and is necessary for the development of his spiritual powers and the formation of a worldview, and this can only be achieved by a person when his thinking is connected with social thinking.” The “linguistic creative force in humanity” strives for perfection, and this determines the uniform patterns of development of all languages, even those “that do not reveal any historical connections among themselves.” Hence, a staged approach and what seems to W. von Humboldt an undeniable distinction between more and less perfect languages ​​are necessary. At the same time, he points out that “language and civilization are not always in the same” relationship with each other”; in particular, “so-called primitive and uncultured languages ​​can and do have outstanding advantages in their structure, and it will not be surprising if they are found to be superior in this respect to the languages ​​of more cultured peoples.”

As already mentioned, for F. von Humboldt, language is certainly a social phenomenon: “The life of an individual, no matter how you look at it, is necessarily tied to communication... Spiritual development, even with extreme concentration and isolation of character, is possible only thanks to language, and language presupposes an appeal to a being that is different from us and understands us... Separate individuality is generally only a manifestation of a spiritual essence in conditions of limited existence.” This point of view was natural if we proceed from the primacy of the spirit of the people; Later, as we will see, the question of the relationship between the individual and the collective in language received other solutions in linguistics.

The spirit of the people and the language of the people are inseparable: “The spiritual identity and structure of the language of the people are in such close fusion with each other that as soon as one exists, then the other must necessarily follow from this... Language is, as it were, an external manifestation of the spirit of peoples: the language of the people is its spirit, and the spirit of a people is its language, and it is difficult to imagine anything more identical.” In this unity, the spirit of the people is still primary: “We must see in the spiritual strength of the people the real defining principle and the true determining basis for differences in languages, since only the spiritual strength of the people is the most vital and independent principle, and the language depends on it.” At the same time, the spirit of the people is completely inaccessible to observation; we can learn about it only by its manifestations, primarily by language: “Among all the manifestations through which the spirit and character of the people is known, only language is capable of expressing the most unique and subtle features people's spirit and character and penetrate into their innermost secrets. If we consider languages ​​as the basis for explaining the stages of spiritual development, then their emergence should, of course, be attributed to the intellectual originality of the people, and this originality should be sought in the very structure of each individual language.”

But in order to understand how the spirit of the people is realized in language, one must correctly understand what language is. As W. von Humboldt notes, “language appears before us in an infinite variety of its elements - words, rules, all kinds of analogies and all kinds of exceptions, and we fall into considerable confusion due to the fact that all this variety of phenomena, which, as it no matter how we classify it, it still appears to us as a discouraging chaos, we must lead to the unity of the human spirit.” We cannot limit ourselves to fixing this chaos; we must look for the main thing in each language. And for this it is necessary to “define what should be understood by each language.”

And here W. von Humboldt gives a definition of language, which became perhaps the most famous passage of all his work: “In its real essence, language is something permanent and at the same time transitory at every given moment. Even its fixation through writing is a far from perfect mummy-like state, which presupposes its recreation in living speech. Language is not a product of activity (ergon), but activity (energeia). Its true definition can therefore only be genetic. Language represents the constantly renewed work of the spirit aimed at making articulated sound suitable for the expression of thought. In the true and real sense, language can only be understood as the entire set of acts of speech activity. In the chaotic chaos of words and rules, which we habitually call language, there are only individual elements reproduced - and, moreover, incompletely - by speech activity; Repeated activity is necessary so that one can cognize the essence of living speech and create a true picture of a living language; from scattered elements it is impossible to know what is highest and subtlest in language; this can be comprehended and grasped only in coherent speech... The division of language into words and rules is only a dead product of scientific analysis. The definition of language as the activity of the spirit is absolutely correct and adequate because the existence of the spirit in general can only be thought of in activity and as such.”

Two Greek words, ergon and energeia, used by W. von Humboldt, have since been often considered by many linguists and are often used as terms without translation. The understanding of language as energeia was new in the science of language. As W. von Humboldt correctly determined, all European linguistics, starting at least from the Stoics and Alexandrians, reduced language to a set of rules established in grammars and a set of words written down in dictionaries. The focus on studying the product of activity was partly due to the predominant, especially in the Middle Ages and in modern times, attention to written texts to the detriment of oral ones. It was determined to an even greater extent by an analytical approach to language. The linguist modeled the activity of the listener, not the speaker. He dealt with speech activity, either directly or indirectly through written texts, dividing it into parts, extracting units from it, including words, and the rules for operating these units. This was sufficient for those practical purposes from which the European tradition grew (teaching languages, interpreting texts, helping with versification, etc.), and after the advent of theoretical linguistics, the analytical approach to language remained dominant. W. von Humboldt was the first to pose the question differently, although he recognized that in order to study languages, there is an “inevitable dismemberment of the linguistic organism in linguistics.” Any example of a specific description of language in accordance with his approach W. von Humboldt 30s. XIX century did not give and probably could not give yet. However, after him, all areas of theoretical linguistics could not ignore his distinctions. Along with the approach to language as ergon, which received complete development in structuralism, there was also the so-called Humboldtian direction, for which language is energeia. This direction was influential throughout the 19th century, moved to the periphery of science, but did not disappear completely in the first half of the 20th century, and then found new development in generative linguistics.

Language, according to W. von Humboldt, consists of matter (substance) and form. “The real matter of language is, on the one hand, sound in general, and on the other, the totality of sensory impressions and involuntary movements of the spirit that precede the formation of a concept, which is accomplished with the help of language.” It is impossible to say anything about linguistic matter in abstraction from form: “in the absolute sense, there cannot be any unformed matter in language”; in particular, sound "becomes articulate by giving it form." It is the form, and not the matter that plays only an auxiliary role, that constitutes the essence of language. As W. von Humboldt writes, “what is constant and uniform in this activity of the spirit, which elevates articulate sound to the expression of thought, taken in the totality of its connections and systematicity, constitutes the form of language.” The scientist opposed the idea of ​​form as “the fruit of scientific abstraction.” Form, like matter, exists objectively; form “represents a purely individual impulse through which a particular people embodies its thoughts and feelings in language.” It is easy to see that F. de Saussure’s formulation “Language is form, not substance” goes back to W. von Humboldt, although his understanding of form is largely different.

Form cannot be known as a whole; we are given the opportunity to observe it “only in specific individual manifestations.” On the one hand, everything in language in one way or another reflects its form. On the other hand, different phenomena have different significance: “in each language one can find many things that, perhaps, without distorting the essence of its form, could be imagined in another way.” A linguist must be able to find the most essential features of a language (W. von Humboldt included, in particular, inflection, agglutination, and incorporation among them), but at the same time he “has to turn to the idea of ​​a single whole,” isolating individual features does not give a complete ideas about the form of a particular language. If he does not strive to study language as a form of embodiment of the thoughts and feelings of the people, then “individual facts will appear isolated where they are connected by a living connection.” Thus, systematic language learning is necessary; that is, W. von Humboldt anticipates here another fundamental requirement of structural linguistics.

Form should not be understood narrowly only as grammatical form. We see form at any level of language: in the area of ​​sounds, in grammar, and in vocabulary. The form of each language is separate and unique, but the forms of different languages ​​have certain similarities. “Among other similar phenomena connecting languages, what is especially striking is their commonality, which is based on the genetic relatedness of peoples... The form of individual genetically related languages ​​must be in accordance with the form of the entire family of languages.” But we can also talk about the general form of all languages, “if we are only talking about the most general features.” “Language combines the individual with the universal in such a wonderful way that it is equally correct to say that the entire human race speaks one language, and each person has his own language.” Here the scientist drew attention to one of the cardinal contradictions of linguistics; for him everything was in dialectical unity, but a number of scientists of later times were inclined to absolutize only one thing, more often an individual language.

Since formless “involuntary movements of the spirit” cannot create a thought, then thinking is impossible without language: “The tongue is the organ that forms thought. Intellectual activity, completely spiritual, deeply internal and passing in a certain sense without a trace, through sound materializes in speech and becomes accessible to sensory perception. Intellectual activity and language therefore represent a single whole. By necessity, thinking is always connected with the sounds of language; otherwise thought will not be able to achieve distinctness and clarity, the idea will not be able to become a concept.” The following statement by W. von Humboldt is also important: “Even without touching on the needs of people to communicate with each other, it can be argued that language is an obligatory prerequisite for thinking even in conditions of complete isolation of a person. But usually language develops only in society, and a person understands himself only when he is convinced from experience that his words are also understandable to other people... Speech activity, even in its simplest manifestations, is a combination of individual perceptions with the general nature of man. The same is true with understanding.” This approach to the relationship between language and thinking has long remained the most influential in linguistics.

W. von Humboldt emphasized the creative nature of language: “In language one should see not some material that can be viewed in its entirety or conveyed part by part, but an organism that eternally generates itself, in which the laws of generation are definite, but the volume and to a certain extent also the method of generation remains completely arbitrary. The acquisition of language by children is not familiarization with words, not simply memorizing them in memory and not imitative babbling repetition of them, but the growth of language ability over the years and with exercise.” These phrases already contain much of what the science of language has come to in recent decades; the term “generation” itself is indicative.

In this regard, W. von Humboldt also interprets the contradiction between the immutability and variability of language: “At every moment and in any period of its development, language ... seems to a person - in contrast to everything already known and thought out by him - as an inexhaustible treasury in which the spirit can always to discover something still unknown, and the feeling is to always perceive in a new way something not yet felt. This is what actually happens whenever a language is reworked by a truly new and great individuality... Language is saturated with the experiences of previous generations and preserves their living breath, and these generations, through the sounds of the mother’s language, which for us become an expression of our feelings, are connected with us by national and family ties. This part stability, part fluidity of language creates a special relationship between the language and the generation that speaks it.” If we ignore the style, which today may seem unscientific, we have here an important point about the dynamics of linguistic development, about the connection of each state of language with the previous and subsequent ones, and this is what linguistics of the 20th century ultimately came to. The following words of W. von Humboldt are also important for the subsequent development of the question of the causes of linguistic changes: “It is clear how insignificant the power of an individual is before the powerful power of language... And yet, each for his part alone, but continuously influences the language, and therefore each a generation, in spite of everything, causes some kind of shift in him, which, however, often eludes observation.”

Language helps a person to understand the world, and at the same time this knowledge is dependent on language: “Just as an individual sound comes between an object and a person, so the whole language as a whole acts between a person and nature, influencing him from within and without, a person surrounds himself with the world sounds in order to absorb and process the world of things... A person primarily - and even exclusively, since his sensation and action depend on his ideas - lives with objects as the language presents them to him... And each language describes around the people to whom he belongs, a circle from which a person is given the opportunity to leave only insofar as he immediately enters the circle of another language.” Thus, here, as in an earlier work, W. von Humboldt raises the question of linguistic pictures of the world, expressing the point of view that much in each person’s idea of ​​the world is determined by his language; this problem was later developed by B. Whorf et al.

In this regard, W. von Humboldt distinguishes two ways of mastering a foreign language. If we have mastered it adequately, then such mastery could be likened to conquering a new position in the previous vision of the world.” However, more often this does not happen, since “we, to a greater or lesser extent, transfer our own worldview and, moreover, our own representation of the language into a foreign language.” Within European culture, such a transfer did not lead to difficulties in mutual understanding due to very similar linguistic pictures of the world. However, in the study of, for example, Indian languages, such a problem, as will be discussed below, in the chapter on descriptivism, has become serious.

Speaking about the sound side of the language, W. von Humboldt proceeded from the not very developed state of phonetics of his time and even mixed sound with letters. And at the same time, he has statements that anticipate the ideas of phonology that emerged only almost a century later: “In a language, the decisive factor is not the abundance of sounds, but rather, on the contrary, much more significant is the strict limitation of the number of sounds necessary for constructing speech, and the correct balance between them. Linguistic consciousness must therefore contain... a premonition of the entire system on which language in a given individual form rests. Here we already see something that, in essence, manifests itself in the entire process of language formation. Language can be compared to a huge fabric, all the threads of which are more or less noticeably connected with each other and each one with the entire fabric as a whole.”

Among the units of language, V. von Humboldt primarily singled out the word. Speaking against traditional naive ideas about the origin of language, he wrote: “It is impossible to imagine that the creation of a language began with the designation of objects by words, and then the combination of words took place. In reality, speech is not built from the words that precede it, but, on the contrary, words arise from speech.” At the same time, any speech is divided into words; “words should be understood as signs of individual concepts”; “the word forms the boundary up to which language acts independently in its creative process.” That is, words are already given to the speaker by the language, while “for sentence and speech, language establishes only regulatory schemes, leaving their individual design to the will of the speaker.” Wed. existing among a number of linguists of the 20th century. the concept according to which words and “regulatory patterns” of sentences belong to language, and sentences themselves are units of speech. Along with the words of W. von Humboldt, he also emphasized roots. He distinguished between roots “as a product of frequent reflection and the result of analysis of words,” that is, “as a result of the work of grammarians,” and real roots existing in a number of languages, needed by speakers in connection with “certain laws of derivation.”

In connection with the internal form of language, W. von Humboldt touches on a problem that later began to be interpreted as a difference in the meaning and meaning of a word; from the point of view of the formation of the concept, “a word is not the equivalent of a sensory perceived object, but the equivalent of how it was comprehended by a speech-creative act at a specific moment of the invention of the word. It is here that the main source of diversity of expressions for the same object is found: for example, in Sanskrit, where an elephant is sometimes called twice-drinking, sometimes two-toothed, sometimes one-armed, each time implying the same object, three words denote three equal concepts. Truly, language does not present to us the objects themselves, but always only concepts about them.” Later, in the domestic tradition, starting with A. A. Po-tebnya, the term “internal form” began to be used in a narrowed meaning compared to W. von Humboldt: it is not about the internal form of the language, but about the internal form of the word due to the fact that in the morphemic structure of a word or its etymological structure reflects certain semantic features.

The formation of concepts in the above sense is specific to each nation, therefore “the influence of national identity is found in language... in two ways: in the method of formation of individual concepts and in the relatively unequal wealth of languages ​​with concepts of a certain kind.” Here again, W. von Humboldt proceeded from different levels of development of languages, which manifest themselves not only in sound form, but also in the formation of concepts; again, Sanskrit and ancient Greek are recognized as the richest in this regard.

Neither the sound nor the internal form of a language create language on their own; their synthesis is necessary: ​​“The combination of the sound form with the internal laws of language gives completeness to languages, and the highest stage of their completeness is marked by the transition of this connection, always renewed in simultaneous acts of the linguistic creative spirit, into their true and pure interpenetration. Starting from its first element, the generation of language is a synthetic process, synthetic in the true sense of the word when synthesis creates something that was not contained in any of the combined parts as such.” This process is completed only when the entire structure of the sound form firmly and instantly merges with the internal formation. The beneficial consequence of this is the complete harmony of one element with another." In fact, here we are talking about what was later called the two-sidedness of the sign, and once again here W. von Humboldt emphasizes the systematic nature of language, the interconnectedness of its elements.

Of course, much of W. von Humboldt's work is outdated. This especially applies to his study of specific linguistic material, which is often not entirely reliable. His ideas of stages and attempts to distinguish more or less developed languages ​​have only historical significance. However, one can only be surprised at how many ideas that linguistics considered over the next more than one and a half centuries were expressed in one form or another by a scientist of the first half of the 19th century. Of course, many of the problems first raised by W. von Humboldt are extremely relevant, and science is only beginning to approach the solution of some of them.

Literature

* Shor R. O. A brief outline of the history of linguistic teachings from the Renaissance to the end of the 19th century. // Thomsen V. History of linguistics until the end of the 19th century. M., 1938.
* Zvegintsev V. A. Introductory article to the section “V. Humboldt" // Zvegintsev V. A. History of linguistics in the 19th-20th centuries. in essays and extracts, part 1. M., 1964.
* Zvegintsev V. A. On the scientific heritage of Wilhelm von Humboldt // Humboldt V. von. Selected works on linguistics. M., 1984.
* Ramishvili G.V. Wilhelm von Humboldt - the founder of theoretical linguistics // Humboldt V. von. Selected works on linguistics. M., 1984.

Biography (en.wikipedia.org)

Combining in himself, in the traditions of his time and inheriting the great figures of the Renaissance, multidirectional talents, he carried out a reform of gymnasium education in Prussia, founded a university in Berlin in 1809, and was a friend of Goethe and Schiller.

One of the founders of linguistics as a science. He developed the doctrine of language as a continuous creative process and of the “internal form of language” as an expression of the individual worldview of the people. In many ways he determined the path and direction of development of German (and, more broadly, European) humanitarian thought of his era.

Origin

On their father's side, the Humboldt brothers came from the Pomeranian bourgeoisie. Their grandfather served as an officer in the Prussian army and in 1738 was promoted to the nobility thanks to personal merit and a request. His son Alexander Georg was also in military service. After leaving service in 1766, Alexander Georg married a wealthy widow of Huguenot origin, Elisabeth von Holved, née Colombe, and thanks to this became the owner of the Tegel Palace and surrounding lands.

Biography

Wilhelm von Humboldt was born on June 22 in Potsdam. The parents spared no expense on the education of their sons Wilhelm and Alexander. At the University of Frankfurt (on the Oder) and the University of Göttingen, Wilhelm thoroughly studied law, politics and history. Devoted to science, he at the same time followed with intense attention movements in the political, social and literary spheres.

In 1789, he and his teacher, the famous Campe, traveled to Paris “to attend the funeral of French despotism.” Somewhat later, he responded to the question posed by history about the mutual relationship between the state and the individual in the essay “Thoughts on an attempt to determine the limits of state action” (Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen). He is here a fighter for complete personal freedom and limits the role of the state to concern for external security. This work was so at odds with traditional concepts that censorship did not allow its publication, and it appeared in print only in 1851.

Even more than political issues, he was interested in new trends in literature and philosophy. Already in 1790 in Weimar, he established strong, never-broken ties with Schiller, and later friendly relations were established between him and Goethe. Humboldt was in active correspondence with both, which was published under the titles: “Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und W. v. H." (Stuttgart, 1876) and “Goethes Briefwechsel mit den Gebrudern von H., 1795-1832” (Lpts., 1876). His early reputation as a universally educated person made him a prominent member of all the literary salons of the time. He appears either in Berlin, in the circle of Henrietta Hertz, Rachel Levin and others, or in Erfurt and Weimar, or in Jena (1794-97), in constant communication with the Schiller circle. Since he married (1791) Caroline von Daheröden, his house became one of the most brilliant salons, where everything that was smart, talented and famous in Europe flocked. Humboldt's wife was one of the most enlightened and intelligent women of her time and provided her husband with the greatest assistance even in his scientific works.

Humboldt's ideas as a historian and philosopher

Wilhelm Humboldt sought to concretize and develop Kant's philosophical teaching on the material of social history, but on a number of issues he deviated towards objective idealism. Humboldt believed that history as a science can in some sense coincide with aesthetics, and developed his theory of historical knowledge. According to it, world history is the result of the activity of a spiritual force that lies beyond the boundaries of knowledge, which cannot be understood from a causal point of view. This spiritual power manifests itself through the creative abilities and personal efforts of individuals, arising from natural necessity or need. Thus, the historical life of society is the result of the freedom and necessity of the life of individuals and the life of the whole. The understanding of the term “Spiritual culture”, later developed in cultural studies, is rooted in these ideas of Humboldt. Humboldt understood spiritual culture as religious and moral ideas that lead to the improvement of a person’s personality and, at the same time, to the improvement of social life.

Humboldt's political ideas

Simultaneously with Schleiermacher, Humboldt formulated the doctrine of individuality. He said: “Every human individuality is an idea rooted in a phenomenon. In some cases, this is so strikingly striking, as if the idea only then took the form of an individual in order to make its revelation in it.” Humboldt believed that in individuality lies the secret of all existence and was the first to express the idea of ​​the need for diversity. Wilhelm wrote his works about the activities of the state at the end of the 18th century, when the state principle was very strong. The state, according to Humboldt, should be limited exclusively to establishing external and internal security. Any assistance to the well-being of citizens by the state is impossible without its intervention in all areas of human life. And such interference, as Humboldt feared, would limit personal freedom and interfere with the unique development of the individual. Wilhelm saw the highest goal, which should determine the boundaries of the activities of the state, in the universal development of individuality.

Works of Wilhelm von Humboldt

* Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Granzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen (1792)
* Russian translation: On the limits of state activity. - Chelyabinsk: Socium, 2009. - 287 p. - ISBN 978-5-91603-025-9.
* “On Thinking and Speech” (1795)
* “On the influence of the different nature of languages ​​on literature and spiritual development” (1821)
* “On the tasks of the historian” (1821)
* “On the difference in the structure of human languages ​​and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind” (1830-1835).
* Socrates and Plato on the Divine (orig. Socrates und Plato uber die Gottheit). 1787-1790
* Humboldt. On the Limits of State Action, first seen in 1792. Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen, page ii. Published by E. Trewendt, 1851 (German)
* Uber den Geschlechtsunterschied. 1794
* Uber mannliche und weibliche Form. 1795
* Outline of a Comparative Anthropology (orig. Plan einer vergleichenden Anthropologie). 1797.
* The Eighteenth Century (orig. Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert). 1797.
* Asthetische Versuche I. - Uber Goethe’s Hermann und Dorothea. 1799.
* Latium und Hellas (1806)
* Geschichte des Verfalls und Untergangs der griechischen Freistaaten. 1807-1808.
* Pindars "Olympische Oden". Translation from Greek, 1816.
* Aischylos" "Agamemnon". Translation from Greek, 1816.
* Uber das vergleichende Sprachstudium in Beziehung auf die verschiedenen Epochen der Sprachentwicklung. 1820.
* Uber die Aufgabe des Geschichtsschreibers. 1821.
* Researches into the Early Inhabitants of Spain with the help of the Basque language (orig. Prufung der Untersuchungen uber die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der vaskischen Sprache). 1821.
* Uber die Entstehung der grammatischen Formen und ihren Einfluss auf die Ideenentwicklung. 1822.
* Upon Writing and its Relation to Speech (orig. Uber die Buchstabenschrift und ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Sprachbau). 1824.
* “On the dual number” (Uber den Dualis). 1827.
* On the languages ​​of the South Seas (orig. Uber die Sprache der Sudseeinseln). 1828.
* On Schiller and the Path of Spiritual Development (orig. Uber Schiller und den Gang seiner Geistesentwicklung). 1830.
* Rezension von Goethes Zweitem romischem Aufenthalt. 1830.
* The Heterogeneity of Language and its Influence on the Intellectual Development of Mankind (orig. Uber die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaus und seinen Einfluss auf die geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts). 1836. New edition: On Language. On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and Its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human Species, Cambridge University Press, 2nd rev. edition 1999
Works by other authors
* Hegel, 1827. On The Episode of the Mahabharata Known by the Name Bhagavad-Gita by Wilhelm Von Humboldt.
* Elsina Stubb, Wilhelm Von Humboldt’s Philosophy of Language, Its Sources and Influence, Edwin Mellen Press, 2002
* John Roberts, German Liberalism and Wilhelm Von Humboldt: A Reassessment, Mosaic Press, 2002
* David Sorkin, Wilhelm Von Humboldt: The Theory and Practice of Self-Formation (Bildung), 1791-1810 in: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1983), pp. 55–73

Notes

1. Wilhelm von Humboldt

Literature

* Gulyga A.V. Philosophical anthropology of Wilhelm von Humboldt // Questions of Philosophy. - 1985. - No. 4.
* Danilenko V.P. Wilhelm von Humboldt and neo-Humboldtianism. - M.: Book house "LIBROKOM", 2010. - 216 p.
* Philosophical Dictionary. Edited by I. T. Frolov. - M., 1987.
* Philosophical encyclopedia in 5 volumes. - M.: “BSE”, 1960-1970.
* Descriptive psychology. Wilhelm Dilthey. - St. Petersburg: “Alteya”, 1996.
* K. N. Leontiev. Favorites. - M.: “Moscow Worker”, 1993.