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Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (, also , ; ; 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher,
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. Lingu ...
, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the
Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
, which was named after him in 1949 (and also after his younger brother,
Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister ...
, a naturalist). He is especially remembered as a
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. Lingu ...
who made important contributions to the
philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy of language), meanin ...
,
ethnolinguistics Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics) is an area of anthropological linguistics that studies the relationship between a language and the nonlinguistic cultural behavior of the people who speak that language. __NOTOC__ Example ...
and to the theory and practice of education. He made a major contribution to the development of liberalism by envisioning education as a means of realizing individual possibility rather than a way of drilling traditional ideas into youth to suit them for an already established occupation or social role. In particular, he was the architect of the Humboldtian education ideal, which was used from the beginning in
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
as a model for its system of public education, as well as in the United States and Japan. He was elected as a member of the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1822.


Biography

Humboldt was born in Potsdam,
Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg (german: link=no, Markgrafschaft Brandenburg) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. Brandenburg developed out ...
, and died in Tegel, Province of Brandenburg. Humboldt's father, Alexander Georg von Humboldt, belonged to a prominent
Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...
n family. Although not one of the titled gentry, he was a major in the Prussian Army, who had served with the Duke of Brunswick. At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
with the post of royal chamberlain. He profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. He first married the daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Schweder. In 1766, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb, a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Hollwede, with whom she had a son. Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had three children: a daughter, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander. Her first-born son, Wilhelm and Alexander's half-brother, was something of a ne'er do well, not often mentioned in the family history. In June 1791, Humboldt he married Caroline von Dacheröden. They had eight children, of whom five (amongst them Gabriele von Humboldt) survived to adulthood.


Philosopher

Humboldt was a philosopher; he wrote ''
The Limits of State Action ''The Limits Of State Action'' (original German title ''Ideen zu einem Versuch die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen'') is a philosophical treatise by Wilhelm von Humboldt, which is a major work of the German Age of Enlightenment, En ...
'' in 1791–1792 (though it was not published until 1850, after Humboldt's death), one of the boldest defences of the liberties of the Enlightenment. It influenced John Stuart Mill's essay '' On Liberty'' through which von Humboldt's ideas became known in the
English-speaking world Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest languag ...
. Humboldt outlined an early version of what Mill would later call the "
harm principle The harm principle holds that the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to other individuals. John Stuart Mill articulated this principle in ''On Liberty'', where he argued that "The only purpose for which power can be rig ...
". His house in Rome became a cultural hub, run by Caroline von Humboldt. The section dealing with education was published in the December 1792 issue of the ''Berlinische Monatsschrift'' under the title "On public state education". With this publication, Humboldt took part in the philosophical debate regarding the direction of national education that was in progress in Germany, as elsewhere, after the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...
.


Educational reforms

Humboldt had been home schooled and never finished his comparably short university studies at the universities of Frankfurt (Oder) and
Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...
. Nevertheless, he became one of the most influential officials in German education. Actually, Humboldt had intended to become Minister of education, but failed to attain that position. The Prussian King asked him to leave Rome in 1809 and to lead the directorate of education under Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten. Humboldt did not reply to the appointment for several weeks and would have preferred to stay on at the embassy in Rome. His wife did not return with him to Prussia; the couple met again when Humboldt stepped down from the educational post and was appointed head of the Embassy in Vienna. Humboldt installed a standardized system of public instruction, from basic schools till secondary education, and founded Berlin University. He imposed a standardization of state examinations and inspections and created a special department within the ministry to oversee and design curricula, textbooks and learning aids. Humboldt's educational model went beyond vocational training. In a letter to the Prussian king, he wrote: "There are undeniably certain kinds of knowledge that must be of a general nature and, more importantly, a certain cultivation of the mind and
character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
that nobody can afford to be without. People obviously cannot be good craftworkers, merchants, soldiers or businessmen unless, regardless of their occupation, they are good, upstanding and – according to their condition – well-informed human beings and citizens. If this basis is laid through schooling, vocational skills are easily acquired later on, and a person is always free to move from one occupation to another, as so often happens in life." The philosopher Julian Nida-Rümelin has criticized discrepancies between Humboldt's ideals and modern European education policy, which narrowly understands education as a preparation for the labor market, and argued that we need to decide between
McKinsey McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest a ...
and Humboldt.


Diplomat

As a successful diplomat between 1802 and 1819, Humboldt was
plenipotentiary A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the wor ...
Prussian minister at Rome from 1802, ambassador at Vienna from 1812 during the closing struggles of the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...
, at the congress of Prague (1813) where he was instrumental in drawing Austria to ally with Prussia and Russia against Napoleon; a signer of the peace treaty at Paris and the treaty between Prussia and defeated Saxony (1815), and at the congress at Aachen in 1818. However, the increasingly reactionary policy of the Prussian government made him give up political life in 1819; and from that time forward he devoted himself solely to literature and study.


Linguist

Wilhelm von Humboldt was an adept
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. Lingu ...
and studied the Basque language. He translated Pindar and
Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Gree ...
into German. Humboldt's work as a
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...
in Basque has had more extensive impact than his other work. His two visits to the Basque country resulted in ''Researches into the Early Inhabitants of Spain by the help of the Basque language'' (1821). In this work, Humboldt endeavored to show by examining geographical placenames that at one time a race or races speaking dialects allied to modern Basque extended throughout Spain, southern France and the Balearic Islands; he identified these people with the ''
Iberians The Iberians ( la, Hibērī, from el, Ἴβηρες, ''Iberes'') were an ancient people settled in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula, at least from the 6th century BC. They are described in Greek and Roman sources (amon ...
'' of classical writers, and further surmised that they had been allied with the Berbers of northern Africa. Humboldt's pioneering work has been superseded in its details by modern
linguistics 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. Ling ...
and
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...
, but is sometimes still uncritically followed even today. He was elected a member of the
American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...
in 1820, and a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1822. Humboldt died while preparing his greatest work, on the ancient Kawi language of
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
, but its introduction was published in 1836 as ''The Heterogeneity of Language and its Influence on the Intellectual Development of Mankind''. His 1836 book on the philosophy of speech introduces the concept of "the inner form of language" (according to Encyclopædia Brittanica 1911):
rst clearly laid down that the character and structure of a language expresses the inner life and knowledge of its speakers, and that languages must differ from one another in the same way and to the same degree as those who use them. Sounds do not become words until a meaning has been put into them, and this meaning embodies the thought of a community. What Humboldt terms the inner form of a language is just that mode of denoting the relations between the parts of a sentence which reflects the manner in which a particular body of men regards the world about them. It is the task of the morphology of speech to distinguish the various ways in which languages differ from each other as regards their inner form, and to classify and arrange them accordingly.
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
frequently quotes Humboldt's description of language as a rule-governed system which " makes infinite use of finite means", meaning that an infinite number of sentences can be created using a finite number of grammatical rules. Humboldt scholar Tilman Borsche notes profound differences between von Humboldt's view of language and that of Chomsky. More recently, Humboldt has also been credited as an originator of the linguistic relativity hypothesis (more commonly known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis), developed by linguists Edward Sapir or Benjamin Whorf a century later. The reception of Humboldt's work remains problematic in English-speaking countries, despite the work of Langham Brown, Manchester and James W. Underhill (''Humboldt, Worldview and Language'', 2009), on account of his concept of what he called ''Weltansicht'', the linguistic worldview, with ''Weltanschauung'' being translated simply as 'worldview', a term associated with ideologies and cultural mindsets in both German and English. The centrality of distinction in understanding Humboldt's work was set out by one of the leading contemporary German Humboldt scholars, Jürgen Trabant, in his works in both German and French. Polish linguists at the Lublin School (see
Jerzy Bartmiński Jerzy Bartmiński (19 September 1939 – 7 February 2022) was a Polish linguist and ethnologist. Biography Bartmiński was born in Przemyśl to a Polish family of Galician craftsmen, moved to Lublin in 1956, where he lived until his death in ...
), in their research of Humboldt, also stress this distinction between the worldviews of a personal or political kind and the worldview that is implicit in language as a conceptual system. However, little rigorous research in English has gone into exploring the relationship between the linguistic worldview and the transformation and maintenance of this worldview by individual speakers. One notable exception is the work of Underhill, who explores comparative linguistic studies in both ''Creating Worldviews: Language'', ''Ideology & Metaphor'' (2011) and in ''Ethnolinguistics and Cultural Concepts: Truth, Love, Hate & War'' (2012). In Underhill's work, a distinction is made between five forms of worldview: world-perceiving, world-conceiving, cultural mindset, personal world and perspective, in order to convey the distinctions Humboldt was concerned with preserving in his ethnolinguistics. Probably the best-known linguist working with a truly Humboldtian perspective writing in English today is Anna Wierzbicka, who has published a number of comparative works on semantic universals and conceptual distinctions in language. The Rouen Ethnolinguistics Project, in France, published online a 7-hour series of lectures on Humboldt's thought on language, with the Berlin specialist Professor Trabant. In Charles Taylor's important summative work, ''The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity'' (2016),Taylor, Charles (2016) ''The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. von Humboldt is given credit, along with Johann Georg Hamann and Johann Gottfried Herder, for inspiring Taylor's "HHH" approach to the philosophy of language, emphasizing the creative power and cultural specificity of language.


Bibliography

* ''Socrates and Plato on the Divine'' (orig. ''Sokrates und Platon über die Gottheit''). 1787–1790 * Humboldt.
On the Limits of State Action
', first seen in 1792.
Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen
', p. ii. Published by E. Trewendt, 1851 (German)
* ''Ueber den Geschlechtsunterschied''. 1794 * ''Ueber männliche und weibliche Form''. 1795 * ''Outline of a Comparative Anthropology'' (orig. ''Plan einer vergleichenden Anthropologie''). 1797. * ''The Eighteenth Century'' (orig. ''Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert''). = 1797. * ''Ästhetische Versuche I. – Ueber Göthes Herrmann und Dorothea''. 1799. * ''Latium und Hellas'' (1806) * ''Geschichte des Verfalls und Untergangs der griechischen Freistaaten''. 1807–1808. * ''Pindars "Olympische Oden"''. Translation from Greek, 1816. * ''Aischylos' "Agamemnon"''. Translation from Greek, 1816. * ''Ueber das vergleichende Sprachstudium in Beziehung auf die verschiedenen Epochen der Sprachentwicklung''. 1820. * ''Ueber die Aufgabe des Geschichtsschreibers''. 1821. * ''Researches into the Early Inhabitants of Spain with the help of the Basque language'' (orig. ''Prüfung der Untersuchungen über die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der vaskischen Sprache''). 1821. * ''Ueber die Entstehung der grammatischen Formen und ihren Einfluss auf die Ideenentwicklung''. 1822. * ''Upon Writing and its Relation to Speech'' (orig. ''Ueber die Buchstabenschrift und ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Sprachbau''). 1824. * ''Notice sur la grammaire japonaise du P. Oyanguren'' (1826), a review of
Melchor Oyanguren de Santa Inés Melchor Oyanguren de Santa Inés (1688–1747) was a Basque Franciscan missionary and linguist who served in Asia and North America. He wrote grammars of Japanese (1738) and Tagalog (1742). Oyanguren was born in 1688 in Salinas de Léniz (Leintz G ...
's Japanese grammar
read online
* ''Ueber die unter dem Namen Bhagavad-Gítá bekannte Episode des Mahá-Bhárata''. 1826. * ''Ueber den Dualis''. 1827. * ''On the languages of the South Seas'' (orig. ''Über die Sprache der Südseeinseln''). 1828. * ''On Schiller and the Path of Spiritual Development'' (orig. ''Ueber Schiller und den Gang seiner Geistesentwicklung''). 1830. * ''Rezension von Goethes Zweitem römischem Aufenthalt''. 1830. * ''The Heterogeneity of Language and its Influence on the Intellectual Development of Mankind'' (orig. ''Ueber