Monday, May 16, 2011

The repulsive quality of Esperanto

I sometimes had the impression that the deliberately rational and unemotional attitude of the scientist and likewise any ideas which had the flavor of "enlightenment" were repugnant to Wittgenstein. At our very first meeting with Wittgenstein, Schlick unfortunately mentioned that I was interested in the problem of an international language like Esperanto. As I had expected, Wittgenstein was definitely opposed to this idea. But I was surprised by the vehemence of his emotions. A language which had not "grown organically" seemed to him not only useless but despicable.
                               Rudolf Carnap
Damned straight Rudy.

It seems to me that Wittgenstein gets this absolutely right and Carnap gets it absolutely wrong.

Elsewhere, Wittgenstein shows considerable affection for made up languages and there was a playfulness about the man that suggests he might well have liked made up cultures such as Tiki Culture as well.

It's the "Unemotional attitude of the scientist" and "flavour of the 'enlightenment" that repulsed him and rightfully so if you ask me.

I think this relates to the points I made about Raymond Hain earlier.
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2 comments:

  1. Bill ChapmanMay 17, 2011 at 2:25 AM

    Hey! Don't drag Esperanto into this!

    Your readers may gain from this the idea that Esperanto is something historical or experimental. In fact this planned second language is spoken by a growing population of people across the world. Take a look at http://www.lernu.net

    Esperanto has succeeded in becoming at the same time a language of choice of Catholics and atheists, "unemotional scientists" and others.

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  2. Jules AiméMay 17, 2011 at 9:07 AM

    Thank you for the comment. I appreciate people who take the time to come here and disagree with me.

    My objection to Esperanto is not that it is historical or experimental but that it is something artificial driven by Enlightenment rationalism. I don't think there is much room for disputing these two claims. It was invented for a purpose as if language was just a kind of technology for communication and it was driven by Enlightenment ideals.

    I suspect that the thing that distinguishes fans of Esperanto is that they think those two things are not bugs but features.

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