ABSTRACT
The search for or ig ins and or ig inating moments which characterised most eighteenth-century philosophical speculation on the relation between language and subjectivity led to an examination of childhood, either of the individual, as in Locke, or of civilisation, as in the works of Lord Monboddo, Condillac and Rousseau. Locke’s negation of the concept of innateness fails to explain the faculty of reflection. Mankind’s ‘progress’ towards a civilised state is marked by the creation and maintenance of signifying systems, primary amongst which is language. However, the dif ference between men and the higher pr imates (Monboddo’s orang-utan, for example) is difficult to distinguish, as speech organs are present amongst the latter as well.1 Other wr iters, such as Condillac (1974 [1746]) build on Locke’s theories, and show how the primary cr is de nature were gradually differentiated, so that by convention sounds became associated with feelings, thoughts and concepts. The birth of language may be accidental, but the significatory system that it builds is subsequently held together by agreement and convention.
