Essential essays on language and speech from two influential philosophers of the 18th century—"These texts are fundamental for modern critical theory" (W. J. T. Mitchell, University of Chicago).
In the latter half of the eighteenth century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Gottfried Herder each composed an essay on a fundamental question about human language. Rousseau's "Essay on the Origin of Languages" is concerned with the development of languages in their diversity. Herder's "Essay on the Origin of Language" considers the genesis of the faculty of speech. This volume presents the two essays together, not only because the questions they address are of basic importance to linguistic study, but also because Rousseau and Herder play similar roles in the intellectual traditions of France and Germany. This book, therefore, should prove useful in a wide range of fields: philosophy of language, intellectual history, Romanticism, and eighteenth-century studies.
Additionally, Rousseau's essay is an important text for semiotics and modern critical theory, as it plays a very important role in Jacques Derrida's book Of Grammatology. Rousseau supplements his discussion of the origin of languages with theories about the origins of music, melody, and harmony, and the relationship of languages to government.
