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The Origin of Speech
“What is the origin of speech?” is a perennial and unanswerable question. In this book, Rosenstock-Huessy uses this riddle as a starting point for an inquiry into the essential features of human speech that people in modern times have tended to disfavor or take for granted. Counter to the intuitions of modern personalism, Rosenstock-Huessy says that real speech, speech capable of transforming lives, must have been in its origin, and still today, formal speech whereby strangers can be assembled, oriented, and sent forth in trust to pool their energies to create durable order and remarkable change. Intimate chitchat and everyday common sense, argues Rosenstock-Huessy, can be nothing more than the residue left behind by formal speaking and the “uncommon sense” of political agreements and multi-generational social projects.
The Origin of Speech declares that human beings require rituals and tangible signs that they live in an orderly universe over which they possess some control. In the process of exerting power through speech, people invariably create both the past and the future as the locations of society’s hopes and fears. Ominously, Rosenstock-Huessy points out that the modern mentality has consistently preferred the informal to the formal, the abstract to the ritualistic, and numerical impartiality to personal address, and hence has forfeited the sources of a “grammatically healthy” community.
The Origin of Speech is Rosenstock-Huessy’s longest sustained essay currently available in English on the subject of speech. Communication scholars and linguists concur: no other writer has approached the problem of formality in language with the fresh insights to be found in The Origin of Speech.
The Origin of Speech declares that human beings require rituals and tangible signs that they live in an orderly universe over which they possess some control. In the process of exerting power through speech, people invariably create both the past and the future as the locations of society’s hopes and fears. Ominously, Rosenstock-Huessy points out that the modern mentality has consistently preferred the informal to the formal, the abstract to the ritualistic, and numerical impartiality to personal address, and hence has forfeited the sources of a “grammatically healthy” community.
The Origin of Speech is Rosenstock-Huessy’s longest sustained essay currently available in English on the subject of speech. Communication scholars and linguists concur: no other writer has approached the problem of formality in language with the fresh insights to be found in The Origin of Speech.
Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
73 books34 followersEugen Rosenstock-Hüssy (July 6, 1888 – February 24, 1973) was a historian and social philosopher, whose work spanned the disciplines of history, theology, sociology, linguistics and beyond. Born in Berlin, Germany into a non-observant Jewish family, the son of a prosperous banker, he converted to Christianity in his late teens, and thereafter the interpretation and reinterpretation of Christianity was a consistent theme in his writings. He met and married Margrit Hüssy in 1914. In 1925, the couple legally combined their names. They had a son, Hans, in 1921.
Rosenstock-Huessy served as an officer in the German army during World War I. His experience caused him to reexamine the foundations of liberal Western culture. He then pursued an academic career in Germany as a specialist in medieval law, which was disrupted by the rise of Nazism. In 1933, after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, he emigrated to the United States where he began a new academic career, initially at Harvard University and then at Dartmouth College, where he taught from 1935 to 1957.
Although never part of the mainstream of intellectual discussion during his lifetime, his work drew the attention of W. H. Auden, Harold Berman, Martin Marty, Lewis Mumford, Page Smith, and others. Rosenstock-Huessy may be best known as the close friend of and correspondent with Franz Rosenzweig. Their exchange of letters is considered by scholars of religion and theology to be indispensable in the study of the modern encounter of Jews with Christianity. In his work, Rosenstock-Huessy discussed speech and language as the dominant shaper of human character and abilities in every social context. He is viewed as belonging to a group of thinkers who revived post-Nietzschean religious thought.
Rosenstock-Huessy served as an officer in the German army during World War I. His experience caused him to reexamine the foundations of liberal Western culture. He then pursued an academic career in Germany as a specialist in medieval law, which was disrupted by the rise of Nazism. In 1933, after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, he emigrated to the United States where he began a new academic career, initially at Harvard University and then at Dartmouth College, where he taught from 1935 to 1957.
Although never part of the mainstream of intellectual discussion during his lifetime, his work drew the attention of W. H. Auden, Harold Berman, Martin Marty, Lewis Mumford, Page Smith, and others. Rosenstock-Huessy may be best known as the close friend of and correspondent with Franz Rosenzweig. Their exchange of letters is considered by scholars of religion and theology to be indispensable in the study of the modern encounter of Jews with Christianity. In his work, Rosenstock-Huessy discussed speech and language as the dominant shaper of human character and abilities in every social context. He is viewed as belonging to a group of thinkers who revived post-Nietzschean religious thought.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 4, 2019
Rosenstock-Huessy! When he speaks, it's like lightning!
(Paul Tillich)
(Paul Tillich)
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January 3, 2022Gostei da edição inglesa. Procurando informações sobre o autor achei essa apresentação e a recomendo:
https://estadodaarte.estadao.com.br/e...
https://estadodaarte.estadao.com.br/e...
June 2, 2019
“ Ao invés de saúde mental, propomos a saúde gramatical. A saúde gramatical requere a habilidade de comandar, a habilidade de ouvir, a habilidade de agir, e finalmente a habilidade de nos libertar do comando contando a nossa história.”
Excelente livro. O Tu é a origem do Eu.
Excelente livro. O Tu é a origem do Eu.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews