Languages and organisms Karl Ferdinand Beckers organic concept

Languages and organisms Karl Ferdinand Becker’s organic concept of language in the context of contemporary biology Alena A. Fidlerová

Karl Ferdinand Becker (1775 -1849) • • • * 14. 4. 1775, Lieser a. d. Mosel, brought up by his uncle, vicar in Paderborn studied theology, form 1792 for 2 years in seminar in Hildesheim, then became a secondary school teacher (teaching esp. grammar), from 1795 professor in Hildesheim 1798 after the imprisonment of his uncle by the church (as a freethinker and heretic) decided to change his career from priesthood to medicine studied medicine in Göttingen (1802 published Commentario de effectibus caloris et frigoris externi in corpus humanum vivum) widely read in philosophy (Kant) and natural sciences

Karl Ferdinand Becker (1775 -1849) • after his marriage in 1804 worked as a physician in Höxter • 1811 returned to Göttingen to work in the gunpowder and salpeter production (1814: Theoretisch-praktische Anleitung zur künstlichen Erzeugung und Gewinnung des Salpeters), then returned to medical praxis in Offenbach (1814: Über die Erkenntnis und Heilung des Petechialfiebers) • from 1823 a private instructor of young foreigners, predominantly in Germans grammar • dissatisfied with German grammars of the time, studied languages and published a number of linguistic and didactic works • † 5. 9. 1849

Bercker’s linguistic and didactic works • 1824 as a member of the „Frankfurter Gelehrtenverein für deutsche Sprache“ published Die deutsche Wortbildung oder Die organische Entwicklung der deutschen Sprache in der Ableitung • 1827 Organism der Sprache (1 st part of the Deutsche Sprachlehre, 2 nd ed. 1841) • 1829 Deutsche Grammatik (2 nd part of the Deutsche Sprachlehre; Englisch translation in 1830) • 1831 Schulgrammatik der deutschen Sprache (subs. ed. 1832, 1835, 1839, 1845, 1848) • 1833 Das Wort in seiner organischen Verwandlung • 1833 Leitfaden für den ersten Unterricht in der deutschen Sprachlehre (subs. ed. 1836, 1838, 1841, 1845) • 1833 Über die Methode des Unterrichtes in der deutschen Sprache • 1836 -9 Ausfüzhrliche deutsche Grammatik als Kommentar der Schulgrammatik (3 vol. ; 2 nd ed. 1842 -3) • 1848 Der deutsche Stil • (1850 Lehrbuch des deutschen Stils, finished by his son Theodor)

Organic concepts in biology • Aristotle – all living beings have a soul (form, principle of life, integrates beings composed of parts into substantial unities), everything in them is oriented towards an end, life of all of them follows the same laws • Mechanomorphic concept – René Descartes (1596 -1650): dualism of res cogitans (spirit) and res extensa (substance, independent, describable by mechanic and geometric means): the clock is as natural as the tree (Principia philosophiae 1644)

Organic concepts in biology • Physico-thelogical study of nature: – influenced by protestant theology and deism: purposefulness of all creatures, immutability of the Creation, nature as revelation of God – static, development only within pre-destined aim and purpose (can comprise purposeful adaptation of organisms to external conditions; e. g. John Ray, William Derham, Christian Lesser)

Organic concepts in biology • Morphology (Cuvier, Geofforoy, De Candolle) – life can be understood from the study of the bodily organization, the essence of an organism lies in his form – organisms often compared to crystals (symmetry, building plan, comparative – kinship in the sense of morphological analogy based on different use of the same elements) – organisms can change, but these are only variations of the same prototype, there is no development in time (Jean Baptiste Robinet – not development, but unfolding)

Organic concepts in biology • Dynamic theories of world and organism: – developing on Newton and Leibniz, based on the notion that organisms are during their life exposed to diverse unpredictable influences and changes and that they react purposefully to them, lead by inner forces • Psychomorphic organic model (animism, psychovitalism, Ernst Stahl - soul as an immaterial, selfconscious principle dominating the body), modified by Théofile Bordeu and P. J. Barthez (two different principles of life: soul and vital

Organic concepts in biology • German naturphilospohie – under the influence of Kant and Schelling – nature can be studied purely rationally, without experience – to proceed from the right principles and make logically right conclusions – thanks to Herder, Goethe, Schiller associated to poetry (use of metaphors) – living things by their own strength take part in the general interrelations of nature (Schelling, Treviranus, Ritter etc. )

Organic concepts in biology • Jean Baptiste Antoine Pierre de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck (1744 -1829): evolution to growing complexity driven by inner force regulated by external needs (organs degenerate because of not using them), the system of organisms should mirror their phylogenetic development – role of time • Forms are related through their common descent

Organic concept of language • Specific for the 19 th century, very successful • First explicitly used by Schlegel brothers and Wilhelm von Humboldt (17671835), all of them in 1795 • Based on Kant who influenced Schelling (1775 -1854) and Goethe

Organic principle in Becker (general) • leading principle from his first linguistic works on • take from his study of natural sciences and philosophy – to give a new impulse to language study • later overshadowed by emphasis on logic • combination of the historical inquiry (old Germanic languages etc. ) and rational speculation, lead by philosophical principle • to describe language physiologically, i. e. in all its relationships and constituents

Biological conceptions (general) • Biology in the 19 th century – distances itself from the natural history, soon the leading science – major concern: the functional processes of the organism → biology and physiology became almost synonyms – studied via anatomy: anatomy and physiology often closely connected • German physiology at the beginning of 19 th century – non-experimental, based on observation, „higher anatomy“, searching for vital forces • France: experimental, connected to physics and chemistry

Organic principle in Becker (organism vs. mechanism) • Rather implicit (organism vs. manmade product) • Language is not an artificial product, thus, it cannot be artificially improved (or, if it is, it is no more natural, but becomes conventional)

Biological conceptions (organism vs. mechanism) • Descartes’s dualism (res extensa purely mechanic): his mechanomorphic model of organisms as automata was current even during the 18 th century • Ernst Stahl (1660 -1734): first who explicitly poses organism (its movements and its organs have a goal) against mechanism (has no goals)

Language study (organism vs. mechanism) • Transferred into language study by Géraud de Cordemoy (1628 -1684): discriminates between language (physical) and thinking (spiritual) (similarly – Johann Georg Hamann) • problems of mechanistic model: presupposes an external moving force, creator and goal, instrumentality of language, repetition of always identical processes etc.

Organic principle in Becker (inner creative principle) • Lannguage has its creative and preserving principle in itself • Inner creative principle of language: dual (human intellect and relationships between sounds determined by organs of speach) • Language is not created by imitation and is not a result of external needs, it is an inborn organic capacity • Spoken language is not learnable and teachable (like other physiological functions), only describable

Biological conceptions (inner creative principle) • George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707 -1788): all living corpuscules have an inner form forcing them to form certain structures • Immanuel Kant: organic being is not a machine because it has its inner moving, creative force, which cannot be explained only through mechanic movement

Organic principle in Becker (unity of parts) • Language is an organic product of human nature, then it must be organically differentiated into parts and relations forming organic whole • The nature and meaning of a part can be assessed only in the context of the whole • Its life shows itself through different subordinate vital functions and multiply repeated antinomies

Philosophic conception (unity of parts) • Immanuel Kant (1724 -1804): – a thing is only then a natural purpose, if its parts exist only through the relationship to the whole and are united through the unity of the whole, representing simultaneously causes and effects on the form of each other – each part is what it is only through the others – natural purpose is an organized and selforganizing being

Biological conceptions (unity of parts) • Karl von Linné (1707 -1778): organism is a body composed of organs • Georges Cuvier (1769 -1832): all parts and functions of an organism are united by one and the same law; any animal is a unified and closed system, all its parts depend on each other and according to a lawful relationship contribute to the functioning of the body, no part can change without a simultaneous change of all others • Pyrame de Candolle (1778 -1841): the meaning of an organ can be deduced from its function and relation to other organs and the whole plant

Organic principle in Becker (inner antinomies) • Organic interrelation of all parts is based on organic antinomies, i. e. those processes and substances (as vehicles of processes), which as opposites enable the functioning of each other – all relationships in language can be described as antinomies • All organic antinomies in nature are special cases of one antinomy, of activity (spirit) and being (substance) – in

Biological conceptions (inner antinomies) • Friedrich Wilhelm Johann von Schelling (1775 -1854): the universal unity of animate and inanimate, led to the speculative equation between organic and inorganic phenomena, e. g. polarity in electricity and magnetism was seen as a cause of the attraction and repellence between sexes

Organic principle in Becker (organism vs. organ) • Language is not an independent organism, it is a product of human organism and has its being only in its sphere • At the same time language has the human organism as its objective – without it, human life is not fully human • Each function of a living organism localized in a given organ which creates for itself an analogue of a complete organism, imitating inner structure of an

Biological conceptions (organism vs. organ) • Lorenz Oken (1779 -1851): an organ (e. g. an eye) is itself a complete organism, reproductive system is an organism oriented contrarywise

Organic principle in Becker (development) • Development of language in an individual teaches us, how it could have begun in the species • Everything in language develops from itself, from inner causes (like from an egg) – all contradictions are there present in an undifferentiated form • The historical study of language becomes real study of language only if it is comparative (like natural history and natural science)

Biological conceptions (development) • Lorenz Oken: first formulation of theory of recapitulation (embryos pass through stages corresponding to adult stages of lower living forms) • Étienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire (17721844): comparative anatomy, the same building plan of all animals (variations of one form) – different from the comparative method in linguistics (that is reconstructivecomparative, knows development in time a quarter of a century earlier than biology)

Biological conceptions (development) • At the beginning of the 19 th century often spoken of progress and development, but not in historical sense – evolution lead by Divine plan (which already comprised everything, i. e. nothing was really new) • transition to really evolutionary conception – through using dynamic terminology for the description of forms (Goethe, Lamarck) • first real historical approach to the development of man – Herder (1787)

Conclusion • Organic principle belongs in the 19 th century to the analogies and metaphors forced by intellectual currents so pervasive that their underlying assumptions are taken for granted • In Becker: not (fully) the case, not mere metaphor • Unity of organic life + more advanced methodology in biology than in language study → it must be possible to treat language like other organisms • His concept of organism (1820 s): many similarities to naturphilosophie • Basically atemporal (comaprative method = data for the physiological study, emphasis on mutual relations of parts)

Conclusion • 1840 s: 2 nd edition of Organism much more logical and closer to universal grammar: – Naumann (1986): Becker developed from an empiricist to a rationalist – he only follows the changes in contemporary biology, i. e. the turn from naturphilosophie to other approaches (logic, materialism, positivism etc. ), but still tries to stick to the organic principle (his logic is based on Trendelenburg: Logische Untersuchungen, 1840: newly defined Aristotelean categories as organic,

Conclusion → a transition within the organic model: the model is not fully abandoned, only some of its components are, and thus it is adjusted to contemporary scientific beliefs (suggested by Schmitter 1992 for the transition from the model of organism to the model of system)