Language Mind And Nature

This text is about the attempt by seventeenth century philosophers, scientists, schoolmasters, clergymen, and virtuosi to create artificial languages that would immediately represent the order of thought. This was believed to be a universal characteristic of the human mind and was seen as a way to reform learning. The text also reveals that much of the so-called "new philosophy" of the time was not very new at all.

In the attempt to make good one of the desiderata in Bacon's Advancement of Learning, a cohort of seventeenth-century philosophers, scientists, schoolmasters, clergymen and virtuosi attempted to devise artificial languages that would immediately represent the order of thought. This was believed directly to represent the order of things and to be a universal characteristic of the human mind. Language, Mind and Nature is a 2007 text which fully reconstructs this artificial language movement. In so doing, it reveals a great deal about the beliefs and activities of those who sought to reform learning in seventeenth-century England. Artificial languages straddle occult, religious and proto-scientific approaches to representation and communication, and suggest that much of the so-called 'new philosophy' was not very new at all. This study broke important ground within its field, and will interest anyone concerned with early modern intellectual history or with the history of linguistic thought in general. Review: Review of the hardback: '... Rhodri Lewis ably tells the story of efforts in seventeenth-century England to produce an 'artificial language'. Review of Politics 'Superseding its predecessors, this erudite and nuanced work provides the empirical, theological, and philosophical baseline for all future study of early modern artificial languages.' Matthew Jones, Isis