{"product_id":"the-search-for-the-perfect-language-isbn-9780631205104","title":"The Search for the Perfect Language","description":"The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom the early Dark Ages to the Renaissance it was widely believed that the language spoken in the Garden of Eden was just such a language, and that all current languages were its decadent descendants from the catastrophe of the Fall and at Babel. The recovery of that language would, for theologians, express the nature of divinity, for cabbalists allow access to hidden knowledge and power, and for philosophers reveal the nature of truth. Versions of these ideas remained current in the Enlightenment, and have recently received fresh impetus in attempts to create a natural language for artificial intelligence.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe story that Umberto Eco tells ranges widely from the writings of Augustine, Dante, Descartes and Rousseau, arcane treatises on cabbalism and magic, to the history of the study of language and its origins. He demonstrates the initimate relation between language and identity and describes, for example, how and why the Irish, English, Germans and Swedes - one of whom presented God talking in Swedish to Adam, who replied in Danish, while the serpent tempted Eve in French - have variously claimed their language as closest to the original. He also shows how the late eighteenth-century discovery of a proto-language (Indo-European) for the Aryan peoples was perverted to support notions of racial superiority.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo this subtle exposition of a history of extraordinary complexity, Umberto Eco links the associated history of the manner in which the sounds of language and concepts have been written and symbolized. Lucidly and wittily written, the book is, in sum, a \u003ci\u003etour de force\u003c\/i\u003e of scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European History.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe paperback edition of this book is not available through Blackwell outside of North America.\u003c\/p\u003e  Series Editor's Preface. \u003cp\u003eIntroduction.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1. From Adam to \u003ci\u003eConfusio Linguarum.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGenesis 2, 10, 11.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBefore and After Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSide-effects.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA Semiotic Model for Natural Language.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e2. The Kabbalistic Pansemioticism.\u003c\/b\u003e .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Reading of the Torah.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCosmic Permutability and the Kabbala of Names.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Mother Tongue.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e3. The Perfect Language of Dante.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLatin and the Vernacular.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLanguage and Lingusitic Behavior.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe First Gift to Adam.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDante and Universal Grammar.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Illustrious Vernacular.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDante and Abulafia.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e4. The \u003ci\u003eArs Magna\u003c\/i\u003e of Raymond Lull.\u003c\/b\u003e .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Elements of the \u003ci\u003eArs Combinatoria.\u003c\/i\u003e .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Alphabet and the Four Figures.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eArbor Scientarium.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eConcordia Universalis\u003c\/i\u003e of Nicholas of Cusa.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e5. The Monogenetic Hypothesis and the Mother Tongues.\u003c\/b\u003e .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Return to Hebrew.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePostel's Universalistic Utopia.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Etymological Furor.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConventionalism, Epicureanism and Polygenesis.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Pre-Hebraic Language.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Nationalistic Hypotheses.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePhilosophers against Monogeneticism.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA Dream that refused to Die.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNew Prospects for the Monogenetic Hypothesis.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e6. Kabbalism and Lullism in Modern Culture.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMagic Names and Kabbalistic Hebrew.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKabbalism and Lullism in the Steganographies.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLullian Kabbalism.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBruno: \u003ci\u003eArs Combinatoria\u003c\/i\u003e and Infinite Worlds.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eInfinite Songs and Locutions.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e7. The Perfect Language of Images.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHorapollo's \u003ci\u003eHieroglyphica.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Egyptian Alphabet.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKircher's Egyptology.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKircher's Chinese.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Kircherian Ideology.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLater Critics.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Egyptian vs. the Chinese Way.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eImages for Aliens.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e8. Magic Language.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHypotheses.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDee's Magic Language.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePerfection and Secrecy.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e9. Polygraphies.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKircher's Polygraphy.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBeck and Becher.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFirst Attempts at a Content Organizations.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e10. \u003ci\u003eA Priori\u003c\/i\u003e Philosophical Languages.\u003c\/b\u003e .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBacon.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eComenius.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDescarted and Mersenne.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe English Debate on Character and Traits.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrimitives and Organization Content.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e11. George Dalgarno.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e12. John Wilkins.\u003c\/b\u003e .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Tables and the Grammar.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Real Characters.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Dictionary: Synonyms, Periphrases, Metaphors.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn Open Classification?.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Limits of Classification.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Hypertext of Wilkins.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e13. Francis Lodwick.\u003c\/b\u003e .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e14. From Liebniz to the Encyclopédie.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eCharacteristica\u003c\/i\u003e and Calculus.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Problem of the Primitives.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Encyclopedia and the Aphabet of Thought.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBlind Thought.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eI Ching\u003c\/i\u003e and the Binary Calculus.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSide-effects.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe 'Library' of Liebnitz and the \u003ci\u003eEncyclopédie.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e15. Philosophic Language from the Enlightenment to Today.\u003c\/b\u003e .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEighteenth-century Projects.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Last Flowering of Philosophic Languages.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpace Languages.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eArtificial Intelligence.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome Ghosts of the Perfect Language.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e16. The Internatonal Auxiliary Languages.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Mixed Systems.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Babel of \u003ci\u003eA Posteriori\u003c\/i\u003e Languages.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEsperanto.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn Optimized Grammar.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTheoretical Objections and Counter-objections.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe 'Political' Possibilitites of an IAL.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLimits and Effability of an IAL.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConclusion.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTranslation.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Gift to Adam.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNotes.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBibliography.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndex.\u003c\/p\u003e \"This is as much a history of the study of language and its origins as it is a\u003ci\u003e tour de force\u003c\/i\u003e pursuit using scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, thus providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European history.\" \u003ci\u003e The Medieval Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cb\u003eUmberto Eco\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Alessandria in 1932 and has been Professor of Semiotics at the University of Bologna since 1975 and the President of the International Center for Semiotic and Cognitive Studies at the Universityu of San Marino since 1988. His books include \u003ci\u003eThe Name of the Rose\u003c\/i\u003e (1980), \u003ci\u003eFoucault's Pendulum\u003c\/i\u003e (1988) and the more recent works include \u003ci\u003eSemiotics and Philosophy of Lanaguage\u003c\/i\u003e (1984) and \u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Interpretation\u003c\/i\u003e (1990).  The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom the early Dark Ages to the Renaissance it was widely believed that the language spoken in the Garden of Eden was just such a language, and that all current languages were its decadent descendants from the catastrophe of the Fall and at Babel. The recovery of that language would, for theologians, express the nature of divinity, for cabbalists allow access to hidden knowledge and power, and for philosophers reveal the nature of truth. Versions of these ideas remained current in the Enlightenment, and have recently received fresh impetus in attempts to create a natural language for artificial intelligence.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe story that Umberto Eco tells ranges widely from the writings of Augustine, Dante, Descartes and Rousseau, arcane treatises on cabbalism and magic, to the history of the study of language and its origins. He demonstrates the initimate relation between language and identity and describes, for example, how and why the Irish, English, Germans and Swedes - one of whom presented God talking in Swedish to Adam, who replied in Danish, while the serpent tempted Eve in French - have variously claimed their language as closest to the original. He also shows how the late eighteenth-century discovery of a proto-language (Indo-European) for the Aryan peoples was perverted to support notions of racial superiority.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo this subtle exposition of a history of extraordinary complexity, Umberto Eco links the associated history of the manner in which the sounds of language and concepts have been written and symbolized. Lucidly and wittily written, the book is, in sum, a \u003ci\u003etour de force\u003c\/i\u003e of scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European History.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe paperback edition of this book is not available through Blackwell outside of North America.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wiley-Blackwell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47990337110245,"sku":"NP9780631205104","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780631205104.jpg?v=1761787412","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-search-for-the-perfect-language-isbn-9780631205104","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}