Concept
Philology
Overview
study of language in written historical sources
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Philology is discussed.
For opponents of this sort, however, philology is merely a useless, harmless, and inoffensive pastime, an object of laughter and not of hate. But, on the other hand, there is a boundless and infuriated hatred of philology wherever an ideal, as such, is feared, where the modern man falls down to worship himself, and where Hellenism is looked upon as a…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Homer and Classical Philology
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; the book is about it; author linked in the graph; opens on it
The _constraint to lie_—that is the sign by which I recognise every predetermined theologian.—Another characteristic of the theologian is his lack of _capacity_ for _philology._ What I mean here by the word philology is, in a general sense to be understood as the art of reading well, of being able to take account of facts _without_ falsifying them by interpretation, without losing either caution, patience or…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols
states what it is; names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Philology early disclosed the truth that in all languages words may be grouped into families having a common ancestry. An aboriginal name, applied indiscriminately to each of an extensive and ill-defined class of things or actions, presently undergoes modifications by which the chief divisions of the class are expressed.
Herbert Spencer, First Principles
opens on it; names the idea
He made important contributions not only in mathematical logic but also in photometric astronomy, geodesy, and psychophysics, as well as in philology. For many years Peirce worked on the problems of geodesy, and his contribution to the subject, his researches on the pendulum, was at once recognized by European investigators in this field.
Charles S. Peirce, Chance, Love, and Logic
talks about the author, not by them; names the idea
As Horne Tooke, one of the founders of the noble science of philology, observes, language is an art, like brewing or baking; but writing would have been a better simile. It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learnt.
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
opens on it; names the idea
Philosophers who discussed Philology
- Tadeusz Kotarbiński
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Max Stirner
- Avicenna
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Gershom Scholem
- Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg
- Heraclitus
- Samson Raphael Hirsch
- Roland Barthes
- Ernest Renan
- Philo
- Martin Buber
- Sanskrit
- Johann Gottfried Herder
- Lin Yutang
- Justus Lipsius
- Wilhelm von Humboldt
- The Buddha
- Giacomo Leopardi
- Paul Feyerabend
- Denis Diderot
- Hannah Arendt
- Shao Yong
Related ideas
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- History
- Ferdinand de Saussure
- Greek language
- Hebrew language
- Philosophy
- Ancient Greek
- Indo-European languages
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- Scientism
- Byzantine Empire
- Language
- Library of Alexandria
- Friedrich Schlegel
- Noam Chomsky
- Linguistics
- Roman Empire
- Syntax
- Sanskrit
- Structuralism
- Renaissance humanism
- Logos
- Writing
- Koine Greek
Place in the tradition
Part of Deconstruction.