Charles Kay Ogden (; 1 June 1889 – 20 March 1957) was an English
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, philosopher, and writer. Described as a
polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
but also an
eccentric
Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to:
* Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal"
Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics
* Off-center, in geometry
* Eccentricity (graph theory) of a v ...
and
outsider
Outsider(s) may refer to:
Film
* ''Outsider'' (1997 film), a 1997 Slovene-language film
* ''Outsider'' (2012 film), a Malayalam-language Indian film
* ''Outsiders'' (1980 film), a South Korean film featuring Won Mi-kyung
Literature
* Outside ...
, he took part in many ventures related to literature, politics, the arts, and philosophy, having a broad effect particularly as an editor, translator, and activist on behalf of a
reformed version of the English language. He is typically defined as a
linguistic psychologist, and is now mostly remembered as the inventor and propagator of
Basic English
Basic English (British American Scientific International and Commercial English) is an English-based controlled language created by the linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden as an international auxiliary language, and as an aid for teach ...
.
Early life and education
Charles Kay Ogden was born at
Rossall School
Rossall School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for 0–18 year olds, between Cleveleys and Fleetwood, Lancashire. Rossall was founded in 1844 by St Vincent Beechey as a sister school to Marlborough College ...
in
Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census.
Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...
, Lancashire, on 1 June 1889 to Charles Burdett Ogden (13 July 1849 – 10 December 1923) and Fanny Hart (1850 – 21 December 1944), who were married in 1888 at Chorlton, Lancashire. His father was employed in various capacities at the Rossall School during the years 1873–1909.
Charles Kay Ogden was educated at
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level. and Rossall, won a scholarship to
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...
, and commenced his undergraduate study of Classics in 1908.
He visited continental Europe to investigate methods of
language teaching
Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language education: ...
in 1912 and 1913. Ogden obtained a
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in 1915.
Career
The Heretics Society
In 1909, while still an undergraduate, Ogden co-founded the Heretics Society in Cambridge which questioned traditional authorities in general and religious dogmas in particular, in the wake of the paper ''Prove All Things'', read by
William Chawner
William Chawner (born February 1848 at Macclesfield, Cheshire, died 29 March 1911, at Vence, Alpes Maritimes) was an educational reformer and the first layman to be appointed as Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Life
The son of William Chawn ...
, Master of
Emmanuel College, a past Vice-Chancellor. The Heretics began as a group of 12 undergraduates interested in Chawner's agnostic approach.
The Society was nonconformist and open to women, and
Jane Harrison found an audience there, publishing her inaugural talk for the Society of 7 December 1909 as the essay ''Heresy and Humanity'' (1911), an argument that warned of the dangers of group-think and implored the audience to realize that we are constantly negotiating the line between egotism and herd instinct, but that how we navigate that line matters. Investigating the origins of the word 'heresy,' her lecture, later published in ''Alpha and Omega'' (1915), challenged many of the religious restrictions and rules of the Anglican Church and its connections with the university. The talk of the following day was from
J. M. E. McTaggart
John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart (3 September 1866 – 18 January 1925) was an English idealist metaphysician. For most of his life McTaggart was a fellow and lecturer in philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was an exponent of the phi ...
, and was also published, as ''Dare to Be Wise'' (1910). Another early member with anthropological interests was
John Layard
John Willoughby Layard (27 November 1891 – 26 November 1974) was an English anthropologist and psychologist.
Early life
Layard was born in London, son of the essayist and literary writer George Somes Layard and his wife Eleanor. He grew up ...
; Herbert Felix Jolowicz (1890–1954),
Frank Plumpton Ramsey
Frank Plumpton Ramsey (; 22 February 1903 – 19 January 1930) was a British philosopher, mathematician, and economist who made major contributions to all three fields before his death at the age of 26. He was a close friend of Ludwig Wittgenste ...
and
Philip Sargant Florence
Philip Sargant Florence (25 June 1890 – 29 January 1982) was an American economist who spent most of his life in the United Kingdom.
Life
His wife Lella Secor Florence and their children
Born in Nutley, New Jersey in the United States, he wa ...
were among the members.
Alix Sargant Florence
Alix Strachey (4 June 1892 – 28 April 1973), née Sargant-Florence, was an American-born British psychoanalyst and, with her husband, the translator into English of ''The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud''. ...
, sister of Philip, was active both as a Heretic and on the editorial board of the ''Cambridge Magazine''.
Ogden was President of the Heretics from 1911, for more than a decade; he invited a variety of prominent speakers and linked the Society to his role as editor. In November 1911
G. K. Chesterton used a well-publicised talk to the Heretics, titled ''The Future of Religion'', to reply to
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
, who in May had talked on ''The Religion of the Future''. On this occasion Chesterton produced one of his well known ''bons mots'':
:Questioner: ... I say it is perfectly true that I have an intuition that I exist.
:Mr. Chesterton: Cherish it.
In 1912
T. E. Hulme
Thomas Ernest Hulme (; 16 September 1883 – 28 September 1917) was an English critic and poet who, through his writings on art, literature and politics, had a notable influence upon modernism. He was an aesthetic philosopher and the 'father ...
and
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
spoke. Hulme's talk on ''Anti-Romanticism and Original Sin'' was written up by Ogden for the ''Cambridge Magazine'', where in 1916 both Hulme and Russell would write on the war, from their opposite points of view.
Rupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915)The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. was an En ...
addressed them on contemporary theatre, and an article based on his views of
Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...
appeared in the ''Cambridge Magazine'' in October 1913. Another talk from 1913 that was published was from
Edward Clodd
Edward Clodd (1 July 1840 – 16 March 1930) was an English banker, writer and anthropologist. He had a great variety of literary and scientific friends, who periodically met at Whitsunday (a springtime holiday) gatherings at his home at Aldeburg ...
on ''Obscurantism in Modern Science''. Ogden was very active at this period in seeing these works into print.
On 4 February 1923, the biologist
J.B.S. Haldane
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...
lectured the Society on "
Daedalus; or, Science and the Future", a speculative vision that enjoy some success in print and spurred in 1924 a less optimistic response from
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
entitled "Icarus or the Future of Science".
The Heretics continued as a well-known forum, with
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
on 18 May 1924 using it to formulate a reply to criticisms from Arnold Bennett arising from her ''
Jacob's Room
''Jacob's Room'' is the third novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 26 October 1922.
The novel centres, in a very ambiguous way, around the life story of the protagonist Jacob Flanders and is presented almost entirely through the impressi ...
'' (1922), in a talk ''Character in Fiction'' that was then published in ''
The Criterion
''The Criterion'' was a British literary magazine published from October 1922 to January 1939. ''The Criterion'' (or the ''Criterion'') was, for most of its run, a quarterly journal, although for a period in 1927–28 it was published monthly. It ...
''. This paper contains the assertion, now proverbial, that "on or about December 1910 human character changed." The Heretics met in November 1929, when
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
lectured to it on ethics, at Ogden's invitation, producing in ''A Lecture on Ethics'' a work accepted as part of the early Wittgenstein canon.
''Cambridge Magazine''
In 1912 Ogden founded the weekly ''Cambridge Magazine'', which he edited until it ceased publication in 1922. The initial period was troubled. Ogden was studying for Part II of the Classical Tripos when offered the chance to start the magazine by Charles Granville, who ran a small but significant London publishing house, Stephen Swift & Co. Thinking that the editorship would mean giving up first class honours, Ogden consulted
Henry Jackson, who advised him not to miss the opportunity. Shortly after, Stephen Swift & Co. went bankrupt. Ogden continued to edit the magazine during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, when its nature changed, because
rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection. Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful jo ...
as a teenager had left him unfit for military service.
Ogden often used the pseudonym ''Adelyne More'' (add-a-line more) in his journalism. The magazine included literary contributions by
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...
,
John Masefield
John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ''The Box of Delights'', and the poem ...
,
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...
,
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
and
Arnold Bennett
Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...
.
It evolved into an organ of international comment on politics and the war, supported in the background by a group of Cambridge academics including
Edward Dent (who sent Sassoon's work),
Theo Bartholomew and
Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson
Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (6 August 1862 – 3 August 1932), known as Goldie, was a British political scientist and philosopher. He lived most of his life at Cambridge, where he wrote a dissertation on Neoplatonism before becoming a fellow. H ...
. A survey of the foreign press filled more than half of each issue, being the ''Notes from the foreign press'' supplied by
Dorothy Buxton which appeared there from October 1915 onwards until 1920, and its circulation rose to over 20,000. Buxton was in fact then leading a large team translating and collating articles from up to 100 foreign newspapers; for instance Italian articles were supplied in translation in numbers by Dent. This digest of European press coverage was exclusive to the ''Magazine'', and gave it disproportionate influence in political circles. For example,
Robert Reid, 1st Earl Loreburn
Robert Threshie Reid, 1st Earl Loreburn, (3 April 1846 – 30 November 1923) was a British lawyer, judge and radical Liberal politician. He served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain between 1905 and 1912.
Background and education
Born in ...
, used the ''Notes from the foreign press'' to advocate to the
Marquess of Lansdowne
Marquess of Lansdowne is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1784, and held by the head of the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. The first Marquess served as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Origins
This branch of the Fitzmaurice famil ...
in 1916 against bellicose claims and attitudes on the British side.
During 1917 the ''Magazine'' came under heavy criticism, with its neutral use of foreign press extracts being called
pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
, particularly by the pro-war patriotic
Fight for Right Movement headed by
Francis Younghusband
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, (31 May 1863 – 31 July 1942) was a British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British ...
. Dorothy Buxton's husband
Charles Roden Buxton
Charles Roden Buxton (27 November 1875 – 16 December 1942) was an English philanthropist and radical British Liberal Party politician who later joined the Labour Party. He survived an assassination attempt during a mission to the Balkans in 1 ...
was closely associated with the
Union of Democratic Control
The Union of Democratic Control was a British advocacy group, pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifism, pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government.
World War ...
.
Sir Frederick Pollock who chaired Fight for Right wrote to ''
The Morning Post
''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''.
History
The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...
'' in February 1917 charging the ''Magazine'' with pacifist propaganda, and with playing on its connection with the university as if it had official status.
Gilbert Murray
George Gilbert Aimé Murray (2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian-born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece ...
, a supporter of Fight for Right but also a defender of many conscientious objectors and the
freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...
, intervened to protest, gaining support from Bennett and Hardy.
John George Butcher
John George Butcher, 1st Baron Danesfort, KC (15 November 1853 – 30 June 1935), known as Sir John Butcher, Bt, between 1918 and 1924, was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician.
Background and education
Butcher was the second ...
, Conservative Member of Parliament for the
City of York
The City of York is a unitary authority area with city status in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. The district's main settlement is York, and it extends to the surrounding area including the town of Haxby and the villages of E ...
, asked a question in Parliament about government advertising in the ''Magazine'', during November 1917. The parliamentary exchange had two Liberal Party politicians,
William Pringle and
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the indust ...
, pointing out that the ''Magazine'' was the only way they could read German press comments.
The ''Cambridge Magazine'' continued in the post-war years, but wound down to quarterly publication before closing in 1922. When
Claude McKay
Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's family predated ...
arrived in London in 1919 he had a letter of introduction to Ogden from
Walter Fuller. He contacted Ogden in March 1920 and Ogden published his poetry in the ''Magazine''.
Author, bookseller and editor
Ogden published four books during WWI. One was ''The Problem of the Continuation School'' (1914), with Robert Hall Best (1843–1925) of the Best & Lloyd lighting company of
Handsworth, and concerned industrial training. He also translated a related work by
Georg Kerschensteiner
Georg Michael Anton Kerschensteiner (July 29, 1854 in München – January 15, 1932 in München) was a German professor and educational theorist. He was director of public schools in Munich from 1895 to 1919 and became a professor at the U ...
(1854–1932) who had introduced him to Best, which appeared as ''The Schools and the Nation'' (1914). ''Militarism versus Feminism'' (1915, anonymous) was co-written with
Mary Sargant Florence
Emma Mary Sargant Florence (21 July 1857 – 14 December 1954) was a British painter of figure painting, figure subjects, mural decorations in fresco and occasional landscapes in watercolour and pastel.
Biography
Emma Mary Sargant was born in ...
mother of Alix. ''Uncontrolled Breeding, or, Fecundity versus Civilization'' (1916) was a tract in favour of
birth control
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
, published under his pseudonym Adelyne More.
[
Ogden ran two bookshops in Cambridge as well as a gallery where he sold works of art by members of the ]Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...
. One of his bookshops was looted on the day the First World War ended.
Ogden built up a position as editor for Kegan Paul
Charles Kegan Paul (8 March 1828 – 19 July 1902) was an English clergyman, publisher and author. He began his adult life as a clergyman of the Church of England, and served the Church for more than 20 years. His religious orientation moved fr ...
, publishers in London. In 1920, he was one of the founders of the psychological journal ''Psyche'', and later took over the editorship; ''Psyche'' was initially the ''Psychic Research Quarterly'' set up by Walter Whately Smith, but changed its name and editorial policy in 1921. It appeared until 1952, and was a vehicle for some of Ogden's interests.
Also for Kegan Paul he founded and edited what became five separate series of books, comprising hundreds of titles. Two were major series of monographs, "The History of Civilization" and ""; the latter series included about 100 volumes after one decade. From its launch in 1924, he edited the "To-day and To-morrow
''To-day and To-morrow'' (sometimes written ''Today and Tomorrow'') was a series of over 150 speculative essays published as short books by the London publishers Kegan Paul between 1923 and 1931 (and published in the United States by E. P. Dutton, ...
" series, another extensive series running to about 150 volumes, of popular books in essay form with provocative titles. The first of the series after an intervention by Fredric Warburg
Fredric John Warburg (27 November 1898 – 25 May 1981) was a British publisher best known for his association with the author George Orwell. During a career spanning a large part of the 20th century and ending in 1971, Warburg published Orwel ...
was '' Daedalus; or, Science and the Future'' by J. B. S. Haldane
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...
, an extended version of a talk to the Heretics Society. Other series were "Science for You" and "Psyche Miniatures".
Language and philosophy
Ogden helped with the English translation of Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
The ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' (widely abbreviated and cited as TLP) is a book-length philosophical work by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein which deals with the relationship between language and reality and aims to define the ...
''. The translation itself was the work of F. P. Ramsey
Frank Plumpton Ramsey (; 22 February 1903 – 19 January 1930) was a British philosopher, mathematician, and economist who made major contributions to all three fields before his death at the age of 26. He was a close friend of Ludwig Wittgenst ...
; Ogden as a commissioning editor assigned the task of translation to Ramsey, supposedly on earlier experience of Ramsey's insight into another German text, of Ernst Mach
Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( , ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a Moravian-born Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the physics of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach ...
. Ogden adopted the Latinate title now given to the work in English, with its nod to Baruch Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...
's ''Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
Written by the Dutch philosopher Benedictus Spinoza, the ''Tractatus Theologico-Politicus'' (''TTP'') or ''Theologico-Political Treatise'' was one of the most controversial texts of the early modern period. In it, Spinoza expounds his vie ...
'', which is attributed to G. E. Moore
George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher, who with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and earlier Gottlob Frege was among the founders of analytic philosophy. He and Russell led the turn from ideal ...
.
Ogden's most durable work is his monograph (with I. A. Richards) titled ''The Meaning of Meaning
''The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism'' (1923) is a book by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards. It is accompanied by two supplementary essays by Bronisław Malinowski and F. G. ...
'' (1923), which went into many editions. This book straddled the boundaries among linguistics, literary analysis, and philosophy. It drew attention to the significs of Victoria Lady Welby of whom Ogden was a disciple and the semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
of Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism".
Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...
. A major step in the "linguistic turn" of 20th century British philosophy, ''The Meaning of Meaning'' set out principles for understanding the function of language and described the so-called semantic triangle. It included the inimitable phrase "The gostak
Gostak is a meaningless noun that is used in the phrase "the gostak distims the doshes", which is an example of how it is possible to derive meaning from the syntax of a sentence even if the referents of the terms are entirely unknown. It is an ...
distims the doshes."
Advocacy for Basic English
From 1925 until his death in 1957, the advocacy of Basic English
Basic English (British American Scientific International and Commercial English) is an English-based controlled language created by the linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden as an international auxiliary language, and as an aid for teach ...
became Ogden's primary activity. Basic English is an auxiliary international language of 850 words comprising a system that covers everything necessary for day-to-day purposes. These 850 words, together with its five combinatory rules, were designed to do the work of some 20,000 English words, which appealed to many of the leading communications philosophers and theorists of the time, including Otto Neurath
Otto Karl Wilhelm Neurath (; 10 December 1882 – 22 December 1945) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. He was also the inventor of the ISOTYPE method of pictorial statistics and an innovator in mu ...
and Willard C. Brinton. To promote Basic English, Ogden in 1927 founded the Orthological Institute, from ''orthology'', the abstract term he proposed for its work (see orthoepeia
Orthoepy is the study of pronunciation of a particular language, within a specific oral tradition. The term is from the Greek ὀρθοέπεια, from ὀρθός ''orthos'' ("correct") and ἔπος ''epos'' ("speech"). The antonym is '':wikt:cac ...
). Its headquarters were on King's Parade
King's Parade is a street in central Cambridge, England.[James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...](_blank)
of a passage from a draft of ''Finnegans Wake
''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction whi ...
''. In summer of that year ''Tales Told of Shem and Shaun'' had been published, an extract from the work as it then stood, and Ogden had been asked to supply an introduction. When Joyce was in London in August, Ogden approached him to do a reading for a recording. In 1932 Ogden published a translation of the ''Finnegans Wake'' passage into Basic English.
By 1943 the Institute had moved to Gordon Square
Gordon Square is a public park square in Bloomsbury, London, England. It is part of the Bedford Estate and was designed as one of a pair with the nearby Tavistock Square. It is owned by the University of London.
History and buildings
The sq ...
in London.
Ogden was also a consultant with the International Auxiliary Language Association
The International Auxiliary Language Association, Inc. (IALA) was an American organisation founded in 1924 to "promote widespread study, discussion and publicity of all questions involved in the establishment of an auxiliary language, together wi ...
, which presented Interlingua
Interlingua (; ISO 639 language codes ia, ina) is an international auxiliary language (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). It ranks among the most widely used IALs and is t ...
in 1951. He furthermore was the editor for Kenneth Searight
Kenneth Searight (born Arthur Kenneth Searight) (15 November 1883–28 February 1957) was the creator of the international auxiliary language Sona. His book ''Sona; an auxiliary neutral language'' outlines the language's grammar and vocabulary. ...
's book Sona (constructed language).
Personal life
Ogden collected a large number of books. His ''incunabula
In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...
'', manuscripts, papers of the Brougham family, and Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_February_1747.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.htm ...
collection were purchased by University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
. The balance of his enormous personal library was purchased after his death by the University of California - Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
.
Ogden died on 20 March 1957 in London.
Legacy
Although neither a trained philosopher nor an academic, Ogden had a material effect on British academic philosophy. ''The Meaning of Meaning'' enunciated a theory of emotivism
Emotivism is a meta-ethical view that claims that ethical sentences do not express propositions but emotional attitudes. Hence, it is colloquially known as the hurrah/boo theory. Influenced by the growth of analytic philosophy and logical positivi ...
. Ogden went on to edit as ''Bentham's Theory of Fictions'' (1932) a work of Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_February_1747.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.htm ...
, and had already translated in 1911 as ''The Philosophy of ‘As If’'' a work of Hans Vaihinger
Hans Vaihinger (; September 25, 1852 – December 18, 1933) was a German philosopher, best known as a Kant scholar and for his ''Die Philosophie des Als Ob'' ('' The Philosophy of 'As if), published in 1911 although its statement of basic ...
, both of which are regarded as precursors of the modern theory of fictionalism
Fictionalism is the view in philosophy according to which statements that appear to be descriptions of the world should not be construed as such, but should instead be understood as cases of "make believe", of pretending to treat something as liter ...
.
In 1973 Georg Henrik von Wright
Georg Henrik von Wright (; 14 June 1916 – 16 June 2003) was a Finnish philosopher.
Biography
G. H. von Wright was born in Helsinki on 14 June 1916 to Tor von Wright and his wife Ragni Elisabeth Alfthan.
On the retirement of Ludwig Wittgenste ...
edited Wittgenstein's ''Letters to C.K. Ogden with Comments on the English Translation of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'', including correspondence with Ramsey.[Nils-Eric Sahlin, ''The Philosophy of F. P. Ramsey'' (1990), p. 227.]
See also
* Simple English
* Universal language
Universal language may refer to a hypothetical or historical language spoken and understood by all or most of the world's people. In some contexts, it refers to a means of communication said to be understood by all humans. It may be the idea of ...
References
Further reading
*
*
Complete text
*
*
* , in
* Ogden, C. K., and Richards, I. A., 1949. ''The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism'', 10th ed. With supplementary essays by Bronislaw Malinowski and F. G. Crookshank
Francis Graham Crookshank (1873, Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon – 27 October 1933, Wimpole Street, Wimpole Street, London) was a British epidemiologist, and a medical and psychological writer, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
Croo ...
. Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1st ed., 1923.
* P. Sargant Florence and J. R. L. Anderson (editors) (1977), ''C. K. Ogden: A Collective Memoir''
* Damon Franke (2008), ''Modernist Heresies: British Literary History, 1883–1924'', particularly on Ogden and the Heretics Society.
External links
*
*
*
*
Ogden papers collected by his lawyer, Mark Haymon
*
Ogden Library
at University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
Ogden Manuscript Collection
at University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ogden, Charles Kay
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