Política e linguagem em Rousseau e Condillac

Abstract

My aim in this paper is to present some aspects of the debate which Rousseau and Condillac had concerning the origins and functions of language - a debate originating for the most part in the 4th and 5th decades of the eighteenth century. I intend to single out the main similarities and divergencies seen in the writings of those two authors, with especial regard to the relations established by them between language and politics. It should be noted that the main text by Condillac under analysis here is the Essai sur l’origines connaissances humaines, published in 1746, which Rousseau, writing in the Discurs sur l’origine et le fondement des inegalités parmi les hommes, acknowledges as the source of his first thoughts on the question of the origin of languages. As for Rousseau’s writings, it should be stressed that my analysis focuses, above all, on the Discurs sur l’inegalité and the Essai sur l’origine des langues.