Science of language

Peter J. Leithart, February 09, 2007

There can be no objective scientific study of language, Rosenstock-Huessy claims. A common claim, but his argument is intriguing: The reason why we can't study language scientifically is because the language that would be studied is the pre-condition of science. Science requires leisure, leisure requires peace, and peace depends on common speech: "scholasrhip is based on a common bond between laity and scholars called the Church, and on a common law of freedom called the State, in our era. . . . The peace needed by the scientist and the speech which he makes the object of his studies, stand revealed, as one and the same process."

The "scientific" student of language cannot old language up as an external object, because language is a condition for the possibility of his investigation. The scientific study of language is always already involved with and dependent on what he wants to study.