2018/06/20 by James McElvenny · 9 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Linguistics and Language Studies #Classical Studies and Philology #Linguistics and Discourse Analysis #Darwinism #Materialism #Historiography #Philosophy #Epistemology #Political science #Law
paper · open access · doi:10.1075/hl.00018.mce
published in Historiographia Linguistica 45(1-2), 133-152 (John Benjamins Publishing Company)
openalex publication_date 2018/06/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Summary Towards the end of his career, August Schleicher (1821–1868), the great consolidator of Indo-European historical-comparative linguistics in the mid-19th century, famously drew explicit parallels between linguistics and the new evolutionary theory of Darwinism. Based on this, it has become customary in linguistic historiography to refer to Schleicher’s ‘Darwinian’ theory of language, even though it has long been established that Schleicher’s views have other origins that pre-date his contact with Darwinism. For his contemporary critics in Germany, however, Schleicher’s thinking was an example not of Darwinism but of ‘materialism’. This article examines what ‘materialism’ meant in 19th-century Germany – its philosophical as well as its political dimensions – and looks at why Schleicher’s critics applied this label to him. It analyses the relevant aspects of Schleicher’s linguistics and philosophy of science and the criticisms directed against them by H. Steinthal (1823–1899). It then discusses the contemporary movement of scientific materialism and shows how Schleicher’s political views, social background and personal experiences bound him to this movement.