Educational reform in seventeenth-century England and John Wilkins’ philosophical language

2001 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.L. Subbiondo
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Philosophical Language ◽  
John Wilkins

‘Philosophical’ grammar in John Wilkins’s ‘Essay’

1975 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivian Salmon
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Real Character ◽  
Philosophical Language ◽  
John Wilkins ◽  
Century Thought ◽  
Insight Into

Recent studies of John Wilkins, author ofAn essay towards a real character, and a philosophical language(1668) have examined aspects of his life and work which illustrate the modernity of his attitudes, both as a theologian, sympathetic to the ecumenical ideals of seventeenth-century reformers like John Amos Comenius (DeMott 1955, 1958), and as an amateur scientist enthusiastically engaged in forwarding the interests of natural philosophy in his involvement with the Royal Society. His linguistic work has, accordingly, been examined for its relevance to seventeenth-century thought and for evidence of its modernity; described by a twentieth-century scientist as “impressive” and as “a prodigious piece of work” (Andrade 1936:6, 7), theEssayhas been highly praised for its classification of reality (Vickery 1953:326, 342) and for its insight into phonetics and semantics (Linsky 1966:60). It has also, incidentally, been examined for the evidence it offers on seventeenth-century pronunciation (Dobson 1968).

Comenius and the Real Character in England

PMLA ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 1068-1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Demott
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Real Character ◽  
The Real ◽  
Philosophical Language ◽  
John Wilkins

Since Bacon was the first Englishman to mention “real characters” and among the first to insist on the need for a truly precise means of expression, scholarship has come to regard the outcropping of linguistic schemes in the seventeenth century as a direct result of his writings. The influence of his “semantic sense” on later thinkers has been traced with some care; Richard F. Jones and others have shown us how to connect the language projects with specific passages in his works; evidence of his influence has been seen in the support given in scientific circles to projects like John Wilkins' Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language, which the Royal Society published in 1668.

From Babel to Eden

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 261-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Subbiondo
Keyword(s):  
Educational Reform ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Universal Language ◽  
Philosophical Language ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
John Wilkins

Summary Starting in the 1950s, there has been renewed interest in the 17th-century English philosophical language movement and in Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), who visited England in 1641 and participated in that movement. In that most of the interest in Comenius has been centered on his role in the development of philosophical language, there has been a tendency to take his theory of universal language (‘panglottia’) out of the broader intellectual context of his work. In spite of his diverse range of inquiry, Comenius, for the most part, maintained a unifying theme for his work – educational reform. For Comenius, educational reform was the end and philosophical language was a means to that end. Thus, as the paper tries to demonstrate, the influence of Comenius on the English philosophical language movement in general, and on the work of its leading theorist and practitioner. John Wilkins (1614–1672) in particular, was that he established a means/end relationship for philosophical language and educational reform.

Comenius (Komensky) on Lexical Symbolism in an Artificial Language

Philosophy ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 37 (141) ◽  
pp. 238-244
Author(s):  
V. T Miskovska
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Philosophical Language ◽  
John Wilkins ◽  
Characteristica Universalis

Although philosophising about given languages had been going on ever since the time of Plato's Kratylos, the idea of an artificial philosophical language or system of signs began to take shape in the seventeenth century. Both Descartes and Mersenne explored the ground for the foundations of a system of expressions which could meet all the requirements of logical thought; but the merit of presenting the first elaborate plans goes to the British authors George Dalgarno and John Wilkins.1 Leibniz followed soon after with his characteristica universalis.

Universal language

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Rutherford
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Modern Logic ◽  
Original Language ◽  
International Language ◽  
Universal Language ◽  
Philosophical Language

Most often associated with attempts to establish an international language such as Esperanto, the idea of a universal language is rooted in the biblical claim of an original language common to all human beings. The idea received its most thorough investigation during the seventeenth century. Drawing on the example of Chinese characters, early schemes involved a system of written signs that would allow communication between speakers of different languages. Later thinkers argued for the importance of an ideal ‘philosophical language’ in which the structure of signs exactly mirrored the structure of reality. While such projects fell short of their authors’ expectations, their influence can be discerned in the formalisms of modern logic and science.

An account of some books. I. Geometriæ pars Universalis, quantinum curvarum transmutationi & mensuræ inserviens, auth. Jac. Gregorio, Scoto: where are inserted some remarks, imparted by the same author in two letters written to a member of the R. Society. II. An Introduction to Algebra, translated out of High:Dutch into English by Tho. Brancker, M.A; much altered and augmented by D. J. P. III. An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, by John Wilkins, D.D. &c. IV. Stanislai Dc

1668 ◽  
Vol 3 (35) ◽  
pp. 685-692 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Real Character ◽  
Philosophical Language ◽  
John Wilkins

An account of some books. I. Geometriæ pars Universalis, quantinum curvarum transmutationi & mensuræ inserviens, auth. Jac. Gregorio, Scoto: where are inserted some remarks, imparted by the same author in two letters written to a member of the R. Society. II. An Introduction to Algebra, translated out of High:Dutch into English by Tho. Brancker, M.A; much altered and augmented by D. J. P. III. An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, by John Wilkins, D.D. &c. IV. Stanislai Dc Lubienietz Theatrum Cometicum, &c. Numb. 30. We gave an account of a small tract, entitul'd Quadratura circuli & Hyperbolœ in in propriasua Proportionis Specie inventa & demonstrata, a Jac. Gregorio Scoto ; and intimated that it would be reprinted here, and accordingly the Impression was begun

משנים את מידות העולם: חוג הלומדים המהפכני בקלויז ברודי ומהפכת יחידות המידה בראשית העת החדשה

AJS Review ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. כט-נג
Author(s):  
מעוז כהנא
Keyword(s):  
Real Character ◽  
Philosophical Language ◽  
John Wilkins

בשנת 1668 נדפס בלונדון ספרו של המלומד האנגלי ג׳ון וילקינס (John Wilkins, 1614–1672) :‘An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language’. וילקינס היה כומר אנגליקני מתון, פילוסוף נטורלי, וגם ממיסדי ה‘Royal Society of London’ – החברה המלכותית שהיתה לאבן דרך בהתפתחות המדעית של אירופה. בספרו הציג וילקינס כמה מסרים רדיקליים. אחד מהם היה יצירתה של שפת כתיבה חדשה, אוניברסלית, שתחליף את הלטינית 1672–1614 ,הישנה של הכנסיה הקתולית, ותשמש מצע קשר למלומדים ומבקשי אמת מכל העולם. מגמה דומה התבטאה במשאלה נוספת, דמיונית לא פחות המלומד האנגלי ביקש להחיל על העולם כולו יחידת מדידת אורך אחת ויחידה, שתחושב באופן רציונאלי ובסולם עשרוני. מאז התפרקות האימפריה הרומית, לכל הפחות, היתה אירופה נתונה בתוהו ובוהו של מידות אורך משקל ונפח. בתוך יחידה מדינית אחת כצרפת או אנגליה יכלו לשמש בו זמנית במקביל מאות מידות שונות. יחידות מידה (שפעמים רבות נשאו שמות זהים) נשמרו במקומות שונים בצורות שונות לגמרי. קביעת יחידות המידה היתה לכלי שרת גם בידי שליטים מקומיים – אלה, כמובן, ביקשו לסמן בעזרתן את מרחב סמכותם, וגם אלה, כידוע, רבו מספור.

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