The Search for the Perfect Language
- Binding: Paperback
- Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
- Publish date: 04/01/1997
Description:
The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics, and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history.
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The story Umberto Eco tells ranges widely, from the writings of Augustine, Dante, Descartes, and Rousseau, arcane treaties on cabbalism and magic, to the history of the study of language and its origins. To this subtle exposition of a history of extraordinary, complexity, the author links the associated history of the manner in which the sounds of language and concepts have been written and symbolized. Lucidly and wittily written, the book is a tour de force of scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European History.
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