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Petrić's Discourse on Language
Erna Banić-Pajnić
; Institut za filozofiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The topic of speech/language is present in almost all of the most important works of F. Petrić. In those works we find two types of rhetoric on speech/language (il parlare/ lingua). The first type appears in the first dialogue of his Rhetoric, and partly in Della poetica. This part of his dispute on speech in which he discusses the relationship between word, notion and thing, between symbol, designated, meaning and designation resembles greatly some of the modern discussions on speech/language, and has thus led many scholars to believe that Petrić developed his own theory of language.
But in the second part of the first dialogue of Rhetoric it is quite clear that Petrić’s discussion on speech/language departs fundamentally from most of the current linguistic views. In the focus of Petrić’s attention, however, is primarily the question of the essence and origin of speech/language. Further on in the dialogue it becomes apparent that his discussion on speech is ontotheologically grounded, as evidenced by the part in which he relates the origin of speech to the Word of God, Logos, Mind as the source of all created. On the basis of the Christian-Chaldean-Hermetic interpretation of the Word and Mind as origin of all, including speech, he comes forward with a thesis: »All things speak«. Apparently, by the Word and Mind »all things have as many meanings as it is in their nature«. At the same time this is ideal speech that conveys the »knowledge of the essence of things«, which, again, enables the performance of miracles.
Throughout the dialogue on rhetoric Petrić counterpoints this ideal speech against human speech »after the fall«, emphasizing the weakness of human speech in relation to this natural, primordial speech which people actually do not understand! Referring to the myth again but also developing a specific historical concept, he discusses the relationship between ideal speech and the speech »after the fall« both synchronically and diachronically. In addition, Petrić expounds extensively his view on the relationship between soul and speech, especially that of animals, a topic that he further elaborated in Pampsychia, part of his Nova de universis philosophia. Drawing attention to some defects of human speech (primarily lack of knowledge of the essence of things and hence the ignorance of an adequate designation for each thing that would correspond to its essence), he attempts to point to the direction in which the solution should be sought. His solution, however, is merely outlined as a draft of a universal language science, the foundations of which being laid similar to those of mathematics because »after the fall«, argues Petrić, »all that man can be sure about is related to number, measure and weight«. Here seems to res an embryonic draft of a certain ideal speech/language similar to the concept attempted by Leibnitz and some other philosophers in the seventeenth century. Apparently, what is significant for Petrić’s approach to speech/language (that he fails to distinguish in the sense de Saussure did) is the presence of two tendencies in his conception of speech/language: on the one hand a tendency towards exact ness in speech as in mathematics (one symbol designating one thing; in his opinion, namely, »if each thing could be called by its own name, we would perform miracles and worthy deeds«!), on the other, insistance on the creative moment of speech (imagination in particular), best evidenced in his Della poetica. Owing to the coexistence of these tendencies in Petrić’s thought, we can conclude that in his discussion on speech Renaissance thought reconfirms itself as philosophy at the crossroads. In this article the author exposes the evolution of Petrić’s thinking about speech/language through the analysis of some of his most important works.
Ključne riječi
Renaissance philosophy; Speech/language; Rhetoric; Poetics; History; Franciscus Patricius
Hrčak ID:
76330
URI
Datum izdavanja:
5.12.2011.
Posjeta: 1.327 *