Physical and Linguistical Understanding. The Problem of Language in Plessner, Gadamer, Apel and Habermas
Practical Philosophy
Final Report Abstract
The research project examines the discourse on language in German-language philosophy in the period between 1918 and 1933. The aim is to make a “linguistic-philosophical turn” (“sprachphilosophische Wende”) visible. This can be seen as a cross-current and crossdisciplinary discussion process in which the topic of language became a crucial subject of philosophical reflection within a few years. Based on the status of those philosophies that entered into a fruitful exchange with other disciplines concerned with language (Sociology, Psychology, General linguistics, German philology, Romanistics, etc.) during the 1920s – and in some cases even earlier – the course of debates and receptions will be examined alongside the relevant texts. With the temporal limitation represented by the years 1919 and 1933, the subject area, already explicitly referred to by contemporaries as the “problem of language”, is reflected against the background of external developments such as war and exile, but also general scientific and political events. The aim of this approach is to question the widespread view in today's philosophical discourse of a two-track linguistic turn – either with a hermeneutic or analytical history – and to qualify other approaches and actors in the language discourse of the time that do not fit into this reception pattern. Among other things, the impact of lesser-known figures such as Karl Vossler, Leo Weisgerber, Theodor Litt and Richard Hönigswald will be examined, whose academic achievements have generally, received too little attention, although they were certainly acknowledged and processed by better-known protagonists of the discourse on language at the time, such as Ernst Cassirer and Karl Bühler. By means of a multi-perspective approach that is interested in concrete stages of elaboration and includes correspondence and other (partly unpublished) materials, the study investigates the origins of a “linguistic-philosophical turn” (“sprachphilosophische Wende”). In doing so, relevant topics and controversies as well as continuing (and in some cases discontinuing) strands of discussion are localized, interpreted and presented in their historical interconnections in the text material of the period in question. By making these thought and discussion processes of different philosophical approaches visible in their dialog with various other sciences, the study contributes to providing a more precise version of the (pre)history of the linguistic turn in philosophy and the social sciences, which is often only traced on the basis of more popular figures.
Publications
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The Habermas Papers: An Interview with Roman Yos. The Archives of Critical Theory, 253-261. Springer International Publishing.
Zan, Pedro & Palazi, Rafael
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Two Letters Between Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel, Dated 1965: Comments on the Exchange. The Archives of Critical Theory, 263-266. Springer International Publishing.
Yos, Roman
