Jaap Maat – författare

This book presents an edition of a previously unpublished notebook used by the seventeenth-century polymath John Wallis to teach language to the 'deaf mute' Alexander Popham. Under the terms of the law Popham would not have been able to inherit his family title and property if he had remained unable to speak. This is one of the most famous cases in the history of deaf education. The notebook, which has recently come to light in the Popham family mansion, provides fascinating insights into the details of the instruction. It is a rare example of a manual tailor-made for the instruction of a known individual and its author is one of the foremost scientists of the period. If it had not been lost the work would have been a key document in the dispute between John Wallis and William Holder, both distinguished fellows of the Royal Society, on whose method had been successful in teaching Popham to speak. The Popham Notebook provides essential evidence towards the resolution of a debate that has been widely discussed ever since.David Cram and Jaap Maat place the work in its personal, social, and scientific contexts. They include a range of additional contemporary texts and provide a clear text with helpful annotations. The edition provides the means for a thorough reassessment of the work's contemporary value. Their introduction also includes a discussion of the theoretical issues underpinning the teaching of language to the deaf.

This book gives a clear and thorough description of three fascinating linguistic projects that were carried out in the seventeenth century: the philosophical languages of George Dalgarno (1661) and John Wilkins (1668), as well as the work of Leibniz in this area. These projects combined practical purposes, such as improving communication, with profound theoretical insights concerning the representation of knowledge and the nature of language. Rich in detail, this book provides all the material for a proper understanding of the workings of these schemes, while illuminating the intellectual context in which they took shape. It will be welcomed by anyone interested in the history of linguistics and philosophy of language.This book: - offers in-depth analysis of the two most sophisticated universal language schemes created in the seventeenth century: the philosophical languages of Dalgarno and Wilkins, supplementing existing literature in focusing on the internal details of the languages, highlights and documents the controversy between Dalgarno and Wilkins, largely ignored in most other books on the subject, showing that their schemes resulted from different, and in various respects antagonistic approaches, presents a careful account of Leibniz's plans for a philosophical language, and illustrates, in discussing his philosophy of language, how his thought was formed in constant interaction with contemporaries, discusses at greater length than usual the extensive work Leibniz did in carrying out his plans, and shows to what extent he was indebted to Dalgarno and Wilkins, emphasizes the importance of the logical tradition for the structure of artificial languages constructed in the seventeenth century, and clarifies the role played by dominant views of the relation between spoken and written language, maintains a fine balance between historical research and argument, presenting what was said as accurately as possible and placing it within its proper context, but also attempting to evaluate the views described, is of interest to linguists, philosophers and historians of ideas.

The first step towards the development of a comparative history of the humanities.

This much-awaited second volume investigates the changes in subject, method and institutional context of the humanistic disciplines around 1800, offering a wealth of insights for specialists and students alike. Point of departure is the pivotal question whether there was a paradigm shift in the humanities around 1800 or whether these changes were part of a much longer process. The authors provide an overarching perspective including philology, musicology, art history, linguistics, historiography, philosophy and literary theory. They also make clear that the influence from the East, from the Ottoman Empire to China, was crucial for the development of the European humanistic disciplines.

Volume III in the first comparative history of the humanities, focusing on the period 1850-2000.