ABSTRACT
The Western tradition is suffused with a deep sense of linguistic displacement, decline, and loss. Two traumatic events dominate: the expulsion from Eden, and the confounding of languages at Babel. The search for the ultimate constituents of language, suggestive though it may be, is insufficient. Even original names might be a contrivance attributed to divine help; the legislator of names ‘may be good or he may be bad.’ Language is capable of seducing our understanding, through ‘the fundamental fallacies which have become petrified within it.’ Radical etymological thinking sees in reconfiguring language the potential for revitalization, as a means of re-energizing or even superseding worn-out linguistic categories. The scientific revolution required a stable, universal, and systematic language of representation. This reflected ‘a philosophical view of nature originally articulated by Aristotle.’ Plans for ideal languages tend to falter once they are confronted with the problem of definition at bedrock level.
