Beyond the Babylonian Trauma: Theories of Language and Modern Culture in the German-Jewish Context

210 Pages·2018·1.066 MB·

by  Gerald Hartung

Gerald Hartung
Beyond the Babylonian Trauma
New Studies in the History and
Historiography of Philosophy
Edited by
Gerald Hartung and Sebastian Luft
Volume 5
Gerald Hartung
Beyond the
Babylonian Trauma
Theories of Language and Modern Culture in the
German-Jewish Context
Translated by Aengus Daly
ISBN 978-3-11-060167-1
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-060384-2
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-060271-5
ISSN 2364-3161
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018956640
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Translation of Gerald Hartung, Sprach-Kritik : sprach- und kulturtheoretische Reflexionen im
deutsch-jüdischen Kontext. Weilerswist: @ Velbrück Wissenschaft 2012.
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck

www.degruyter.com
Alanguagefillsanicheinthehoneycombofpotentialperceptionsandinterpre-
tations.Itarticulatesaconstructofvalues,interpretations,assumptionsthatno
otherlanguagerepeatsexactlyorreplaces.Becauseourspecieshasspokenand
speaks invarious different languages, it brings forth an abundance of environ-
mentsandadaptsitself tothem.Wespeakworlds.ThusBabelwastheopposite
of a curse.
George Steiner (Errata)

Contents
 Introduction – The Event of Language 1
 Of Language as an ‘Event’ – Heymann Steinthal 9
. Steinthal’s Mediation between Hegel and Humboldt 10
. Philosophy of Language and Linguistics 14
Excursus on the Organism of Language 18
. Anthropology and Linguistics 24
. Language as Generation in the Spirit 27
 The Origin of Language from ‘Almost Nothing’ – Lazarus
Geiger 29
. Darwinand Linguistics 31
. The Origin of Languages in the Light of Darwin’s Theory 33
. Concerning the Difference between Anthropology and
Linguistics 35
. On the Development of Language from ‘almost nothing’ 38
. Linguistic Development and Linguistic Diversity 43
 The ‘Spirit of Language’ – Moritz Lazarus 46
. On Language 46
. On Cultural Development or the Influence of Language on
Spirit 52
. The Understanding in Language or Conversation 60
. The Project of a Natural History of Conversation 64
 ‘The Peace of Humour’ – Hermann Cohen 69
. The World-history of the Spirit and the Peace of Humour 70
. Moritz Lazarus’ Psychology of Humour 77
. On the Nature of Human Beings and the Human Beings in
Nature 81
A Digression on Laughter 87
. Messianism and the Ideal of Peace in Cohen 96
 On Tact as Form of Sociability 99
. A Genealogy of Tact in Kant and Herbart 100
. Moritz Lazarus on the Counter-sense of Tact 104
. Georg Simmel on Tact and Sociability 109
VIII Contents
. Helmuth Plessner on the “Wisdom of Tact” 113
 At the Limits of the ‘Critique of Language’ –Fritz Mauthner 116
. Mauthner’s Contributions to the Critique of Language
(1901–2) 118
Excursus on the History of the Categories 120
. The Origination and Development of Language 124
. History of Language and Reason 128
. The Actuality of Language 133
. Suicide through the Critique of Language – A Crossing of the
Boundary 140
. Mauthner’s Concept of the Critique of Language in the Mirror of
His Critics 146
 From the Critique of Language to a ‘Critique of Culture’ – Ernst
Cassirer 153
. Connection to the Humboldt Tradition – on the Theory of
Language 153
. Naturalism versus Humanism – the Transition to the Philosophy of
Culture 158
. Aporiai of the Theory of Language and Culture 160
. From the Theory of Language to Anthropology 167
 Conclusion – Language, Culture and Individuality 171
Bibliography 186
Index 200
0 Introduction – The Event of Language
Languageistheonlychimera
Whosepowertodeceiveisendless,itisaninexhaustibility,
Thatdoesnotimpoverishlife.
Humansshouldlearntoserveit!
(KarlKraus)¹
Thisbookisconcernedwithuncoveringanalmostforgottentraditionoflinguis-
ticandculturaltheory,atraditionthatextendedfromthemiddleofthe19thcen-
turytothefirsthalfofthe20thcentury.Itconcernsaschoolofthoughtthattrans-
posed the ancient enigma of the origin of language into “human nature”.
Ultimately, it makes clear what was always already a given, i.e.,that every lin-
guistictheoryimpliesananthropologicalthesis.Thefollowinglinguistic-theoret-
icalreflectionsdonottrytoevadetheultimateconsequencesinvolvedinthink-
ing about language in a way that considers its anthropological implications.
They make unequivocally clear that, in the interlacing of the mental and the
physical,andespeciallywhenlanguageisnotalsolinkedtothephysicalorma-
terial side of life,there is a dangerof a lapse into idealism.On the other hand,
thesereflectionsalsoadmitthatwhenthepossibilityofacreative,spontaneous
expressivity is not at least considered, there is also the threat of a naturalistic
lapse in regarding the complexityof the phenomenon of language.
Languageisneitheramerelymentalactnoramaterialprocess.Languageis
anoccurrence.Languageoccursasaninterlacingofdifferentaspectsanddimen-
sions of human life and in the meeting of human individuals. Each can be of
verydifferentduration.The material phonetic sound,the medium of communi-
cation, only loosely binds thoughts and expression together.The duration of a
phonetic sound in the inter-human field is also slight. Nevertheless, something
originates during the occurrence of language that continues to have an effect.
Therearisesaformofcommunity,aco-existingwhichisneithergivennecessa-
rilybythe externalconditionsnor haphazardlychosenin arbitraryactions.The
reliabilityoflinguisticexpression,insofarasathoughtiscorrelatedwithitandit
reachessomeoneelse,isnotagivenineachparticularsituationbutrathergen-
eratedineachparticularcase.Thisconcepthasimplicationsforanthropological
theorybecause‘thehuman’doesnotexistasageneralcondition.Whatexistsare
momentsandaspectsofanindividuallife,whicharticulatethemselvesdifferent-
ly.Likelanguage,theindividualisaproductofcertainsituationsinlife,suchas
 Kraus,“DieSprache”,p.373.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110603842-001
2 0 Introduction–TheEventofLanguage
those we see in conversation. This also holds for cultures, which are dynamic
structures and are in no way pre-given or even natural things.
Attheoutsetofthiswork,afewexplanationsmaysufficetomakethechal-
lenge posed by a linguistic and cultural-theoretical reflection, one that rejects
any localization in principle of language, the human life-form, its culture in a
pre-defined, seemingly self-evident and familiar horizon, comprehensible.
Whatisatissuehereissimplytheunderminingoftherigidboundariesbetween
Iandyou,betweenone’sownandthealien,andthereafterdelegatingtheproj-
ectofdrawingboundariestothesituationinwhichhumansmeetandcreatere-
lationships between themselves – seeing that there can be no enduringcoexis-
tence under the condition of a radical formlessness and boundlessness.
General explanations of the systematic form of a concept of linguistic and
cultural theory have a historical dimension. The selection of approaches that
aredevelopedin the frameworkof the present studysupport this.The tradition
of linguistic theory,which has become part of linguistic anthropology, is based
ontheindividualcontributionsof “JewsofGermanlanguage”(HannahArendt).
Thisisnoaccident.²Therearegoodreasonsforassumingthatawholevarietyof
socio-culturalfactorsinthe19thcenturygeneratedthehopethatthepathtoac-
ceptanceintosocietyisprimarilyenabledbyco-belongingtotheGermanlinguis-
tic community.³ Thus, in his treatise Die Sprache, the linguistic sceptic Fritz
Mauthner (see Chapter 6, below) claims that a semantic shift took place in the
meaning of the word “Volk”, “people”, in Germanic lands. While once it
meant a “band of warriors”, a dictionary from that time describes a “Volk” as
“a group held together through a community of language”. And Mauthner
added by way of explanation that “until the year 1870 […] nothing else [could
be]understoodastheGermanpeoplethanacrowdwithacommonGermanlan-
guage”.⁴
AlthoughMauthnerdoesnotwanttooverstretchthesocialandcultural-his-
torical significance of this connection, it is nonetheless significant. Linguistic
and cultural theorists in the German-Jewish context initiated a debate concern-
inglanguage as a fundamental structure of human life, in a time period when,
for several decades, the socio-cultural context championed membership of the
 See in particular Stephan Braese’s Eine europäische Sprache – Deutsche Sprachkultur von
Juden 1760–1930 which instances comprehensive considerations on linguistic theory in the
19th and 20th century with particular incidental treatments of Karl Kraus,Walter Benjamin
andSigmundFreud.Thepostscriptespeciallyunderlinesoncemorethespecialcharacterofa
linguisticculturethatwascomposedofGermanspeakingEuropeanJews.
 SeeTrautmann-Waller(ed.),ReferencesjuivesetidentitésscientifiquesenAllemagne.
 Mauthner,DieSprache,pp.47–48.