Characteristica universalis  

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-'''Universal language''' may refer to a hypothetical or historical language spoken and understood by all or most of the world's population. In some contexts, it refers to a means of communication said to be understood by all living things, beings, and objects alike. It may be the idea of an [[international auxiliary language]] for communication between groups speaking different primary languages. In other conceptions, it may be the primary language of all speakers, or the only existing language. Some mythological or religious traditions state that there was once a single universal language among all people, or shared by humans and [[supernatural]] beings, however, this is not supported by historical evidence.+The [[Latin]] term '''''characteristica universalis''''', commonly interpreted as ''universal characteristic'', or ''universal character'' in English, is a universal and formal language imagined by the German philosopher [[Gottfried Leibniz]] able to express mathematical, scientific, and metaphysical concepts. Leibniz thus hoped to create a language usable within the framework of a universal logical calculation or ''[[calculus ratiocinator]]''.
-In other traditions, there is less interest in or a general deflection of the question. For example in [[Islam]] the [[Arabic language]] is the language of the [[Qur'an]], and so universal for Muslims. The written [[Classical Chinese|Classical Chinese language]] was and is still read widely but pronounced somewhat differently by readers in different areas of [[China]], [[Vietnam]], [[Korea]] and [[Japan]] for centuries; it was a ''[[de facto]]'' universal ''literary'' language for a broad-based culture. In something of the same way [[Sanskrit]] in [[India]] and [[Nepal]], and [[Pali]] in [[Sri Lanka]] and in [[Theravada]] countries of [[South-East Asia]] ([[Burma]], [[Thailand]], [[Cambodia]]), were literary languages for many for whom they were not their [[mother tongue]].+The ''characteristica universalis'' is a recurring concept in the writings of [[Gottfried Leibniz]]. When writing in French, he sometimes employed the phrase '''''spécieuse générale''''' to the same effect. The concept is sometimes paired with his notion of a ''calculus ratiocinator'' and with his plans for an encyclopaedia as a compendium of all human knowledge.
-Comparably, the [[Latin|Latin language]] (''qua'' [[Medieval Latin]]) was in effect a universal language of [[Intellectual|literati]] in the [[Middle Ages]], and the language of the [[Vulgate Bible]] in the area of [[Catholicism]], which covered most of Western [[Europe]] and parts of Northern and Central Europe also.+==Related 17th century projects==
- +Others in the 17th century, such as [[George Dalgarno]], attempted similar philosophical and linguistic projects, some under the heading of ''[[mathesis universalis]]''. A notable example was [[John Wilkins]], the author of ''[[An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language]]'', who wrote a [[thesaurus]] as a first step towards a universal language. He intended to add to his thesaurus an [[alphabet of human thought]] (an organisational scheme, similar to a [[thesaurus]] or the [[Dewey decimal system]]), and an "algebra of thought," allowing rule-based manipulation. The philosophers and linguists who undertook such projects often belonged to pansophical (universal knowledge) and scientific knowledge groups in London and Oxford, collectively known as the "[[Invisible College]]" and now seen as forerunners of the [[Royal Society]].
-In a more practical fashion, trade languages, as ancient [[Koine Greek]], may be seen as a kind of ''real'' universal language, that was used for commerce.+
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-In [[historical linguistics]], [[monogenesis (linguistics)|monogenesis]] refers to the idea that all spoken human languages are descended from a single ancestral language spoken many thousands of years ago.+
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-==Mythological universal languages==+
-:''[[Mythical origins of language]]''+
-Various religious texts, myths and legends describe a state of humanity in which originally only one language was spoken. In [[Judeo-Christian]] beliefs, the "[[confusion of tongues]]" described in the Biblical story of the [[Tower of Babel]] tells of the creation of numerous languages from an original [[Adamic language]]. Similar myths exist in other cultures describing the creation of multiple languages as an act of a god, such as the destruction of a 'knowledge tree' by [[Brahma]] in Indic tradition, or as a gift from the God [[Hermes]] in Greek myth. Other myths describe the creation of different languages as concurrent with the creation of different tribes of people, or due to supernatural events.+
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-Chinese characters are universal because they are picture or picture-symbol based. They are not phonetic or specifically sound based such as Mandarin specifically, but almost equally to over 36 languages in China alone as well as Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese & other languages. Each graphic / character language has phonetic symbols as well as all characters & their radicals (parts) have names & may be expressed in each phonetic language. Each language speaks its own sound but the pictures are universal. As such Chinese & other eastern languages of this system have been able to anchor themselves without so much syllabic variation. Hence Chinese for example is about 10% more compact than phonetic languages such as English. English keeps on adding syllables not aware of meanings within existing symbols. Picture-symbol graphics or character languages maintain word history better than just phonetic languages.+
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-The universal language of Babylon was the graphic pictorial Hieroglyphic language of Egypt used in various forms across the middle east & parts of Europe. When hieroglyphics were oppressed by the colonialism of that time & each empire's (Assyrian, Semitic, Greek, Roman, French, English etc) dominant phonetic language became dominant, they could only keep communication through dominance.+
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-Graphic pictorial languages also use 'Hand-talk' or sign language parallel to the graphic symbols used on paper so as to be able to communicate across large territories. North America used American Indian Hand Talk across great regions. The Graphic symbols of Mexico, the MIssissippi Mound Cities, west & east coast were not understood by Europeans who in about 1720 - 50 began burning the great libraries of Mexico & the String Shell records such as Wampum across North America. The church led book & quipu burning in South & Central America as well.+
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-== Seventeenth century ==+
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-Recognizable strands in the contemporary ideas on universal languages took form only in [[Early Modern]] Europe. A ''[[lingua franca]]'' or trade language was nothing very new; but an [[international auxiliary language]] was a natural wish in light of the gradual decline of Latin. Literature in vernacular languages became more prominent with the [[Renaissance]]. Over the course of the 18th century, learned works largely ceased to be written in [[Latin]]. According to Colton Booth (''Origin and Authority in Seventeenth-Century England'' (1994) p. 174) "The Renaissance had no single view of Adamic language and its relation to human understanding." The question was more exactly posed in the work of [[Francis Bacon]].+
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-In the vast writings of [[Gottfried Leibniz]] can be found many elements relating to a possible universal language, specifically a [[constructed language]], a concept that gradually came to replace that of a rationalized Latin as the natural basis for a projected universal language. Leibniz conceived of a ''[[characteristica universalis]]'' (also see ''[[mathesis universalis]]''), an "algebra" capable of expressing all conceptual thought. This algebra would include rules for symbolic manipulation, what he called a ''[[calculus ratiocinator]]'' . His goal was to put [[reasoning]] on a firmer basis by reducing much of it to a matter of calculation that many could grasp. The ''characteristica'' would build on an [[alphabet of human thought]].+
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-Leibniz's work is bracketed by some earlier mathematical ideas of [[René Descartes]], and the satirical attack of [[Voltaire]] on [[Panglossianism]]. Descartes's ambitions were far more modest than Leibniz's, and also far more successful, as shown by his wedding of [[algebra]] and [[geometry]] to yield what we now know as [[analytic geometry]]. Decades of research on [[symbolic artificial intelligence]] have not brought Leibniz's dream of a ''characteristica'' any closer to fruition.+
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-Other 17th-century proposals for a 'philosophical' (i.e. universal) language include those by [[Francis Lodwick]], [[Thomas Urquhart]] (possibly parodic), [[George Dalgarno]] (''Ars signorum'', 1661), and [[John Wilkins]] (''[[An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language]]'', 1668). The classification scheme in [[Peter Mark Roget|Roget]]'s [[Thesaurus]] ultimately derives from Wilkins's ''Essay''.+
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-==Eighteenth century==+
-''[[Candide]]'', a [[satire]] written by [[Voltaire]], took aim at Leibniz as [[Dr. Pangloss]], with the choice of name clearly putting universal language in his sights, but satirizing mainly the [[optimism]] of the projector as much as the project. The argument takes the universal language itself no more seriously than the ideas of the speculative scientists and ''virtuosi'' of [[Jonathan Swift]]'s [[Laputa]]. For the like-minded of Voltaire's generation, universal language was tarred as [[fool's gold]] with the same brush as [[philology]] with little [[intellectual rigour]], and universal [[mythography]], as futile and arid directions.+
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-In the 18th century, some rationalist natural philosophers sought to recover a supposed [[Edenic language]]. It was assumed that education inevitably took people away from an innate state of goodness they possessed, and therefore there was an attempt to see what language a human child brought up in utter silence would speak. This was assumed to be the Edenic tongue, or at least the lapsarian tongue. +
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-Others attempted to find a common linguistic ancestor to all tongues; there were, therefore, multiple attempts to relate esoteric languages to [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] (e.g. [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Erse language|Erse]], and [[Irish language|Irish]]), as well as the beginnings of [[comparative linguistics]].+
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-==Nineteenth century==+
-At the end of the 19th century, there was a large profusion of constructed languages intended as genuine, spoken language. There were created languages which don't belong to any country and can be learned by everyone. Among these are [[Solresol]], [[Volapük language|Volapük]], and [[Esperanto]], the most spoken constructed language nowadays. At that time, those ideas were readily accepted. With the advent of World Wars and the Cold War, these successes were buried.+
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-==Twentieth century==+
-:''[[World language]]''+
-The constructed language movement produced such languages as [[Ido (language)|Ido]], [[Latino Sine Flexione]], [[Occidental language|Occidental]], and finally the [[International auxiliary language|auxiliary language]] [[Interlingua]].+
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-==Twenty-first century==+
-English remains the dominant language of international business and global communication through the influence of global media and the former British Empire that had established the use of English in regions around the world such as North America, India, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. However, English is not the only language used in global organizations such as in the EU or the UN, because many countries do not recognize English as a universal language.+
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-== Contemporary ideas ==+
-The early ideas of a universal language with complete conceptual classification by categories is still debated on various levels. [[Michel Foucault]] believes such classifications to be subjective, citing [[Borges]]' fictional [[Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge's Taxonomy]] as an illustrative example.+
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-A recent philosophical synthesis has also connected Leibniz's interest in environmental engineering with Systems Ecology. It has been proposed that a modern form of Leibniz's ''[[Characteristica universalis|Characteristica Universalis]]'' is the [[Energy Systems Language]] of Systems Ecology, which has been used to develop ecological-economic systems overviews of landscapes, technologies, and Nations. One consequence of this seems to be that Leibniz's Enlightenment project is alive and being applied globally in the [[energy evolution|evolution]] of ecological sustainability.+
==See also== ==See also==
-*[[Esperanto]]+*[[Gottfried Leibniz]]
-*[[Ido (language)|Ido]]+*[[Calculus ratiocinator]]
-*[[Interlingua]]+*[[Begriffsschrift]]
-*[[Universal grammar]]+*[[Existential graph]]
-*[[Universal picture language]]+*[[Alphabet of human thought]]
- +*''[[Mathesis universalis]]''
 +*[[Universal language]]
 +*[[Unified Science]]
 +*[[Isotype (picture language)]]
 +*[[Energy Systems Language]]
 +*[[Emergy Synthesis]]
 +*[[Ontology]]
 +*[[Blissymbols]]
 +*[[International auxiliary language]]
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The Latin term characteristica universalis, commonly interpreted as universal characteristic, or universal character in English, is a universal and formal language imagined by the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz able to express mathematical, scientific, and metaphysical concepts. Leibniz thus hoped to create a language usable within the framework of a universal logical calculation or calculus ratiocinator.

The characteristica universalis is a recurring concept in the writings of Gottfried Leibniz. When writing in French, he sometimes employed the phrase spécieuse générale to the same effect. The concept is sometimes paired with his notion of a calculus ratiocinator and with his plans for an encyclopaedia as a compendium of all human knowledge.

[edit]

Related 17th century projects

Others in the 17th century, such as George Dalgarno, attempted similar philosophical and linguistic projects, some under the heading of mathesis universalis. A notable example was John Wilkins, the author of An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, who wrote a thesaurus as a first step towards a universal language. He intended to add to his thesaurus an alphabet of human thought (an organisational scheme, similar to a thesaurus or the Dewey decimal system), and an "algebra of thought," allowing rule-based manipulation. The philosophers and linguists who undertook such projects often belonged to pansophical (universal knowledge) and scientific knowledge groups in London and Oxford, collectively known as the "Invisible College" and now seen as forerunners of the Royal Society.

[edit]

See also


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