Hamann’s best known contribution to philosophy is his philosophy of language that critiqued the use of reason and language of many enlightenment philosophers. Within his works, there is always the underlying theme of mediation, expression, and reason in Hamann’s philosophy of language that he garnishes with traits of his intense religiosity and his emphasis on human expression. In short, Hamann’s principal question he sought to answer was what is language? The question of what language was and what reason was, went hand in hand for Hamann; and it is his unique philosophy of language for his time that is his principal claim for being the father of the counter-enlightenment. His philosophy of language revealed most notably his perception of how humans should and do understand the world and reason after this understanding. He rejected the mechanistic approach to reasoning of many enlightenment philosophers, condemning them for their lifeless and their ultimately absurd task of attempting to use language to find what it intrinsically could not and sapping language of the passion that made true language. Hamann ultimately believed that language revealed its importance in the innate passion of humans that influences and connects reason and concepts to language that connects humans to the world of God.
Hamann’s philosophy of language can be seen as leaning more towards what natural language offers and rejecting the sufficiency of just sorts of formal language. Hamann’s ideas came directly from his rejection of the primacy of more formalized uses of language that certain enlightenment philosophers pinpointed. Hamann aired out much of his grievances with the philosophy of language Kant outlined in his Critique of Pure Reason with his Metacritique on the Purisim of Pure Reason which accused Kant among other famous philosophers like Hume for misunderstanding that “The third, highest, and, as it were, empirical purism is therefore concerned with language, the only, first, and last organon and criterion of reason, with no credentials but tradition and usage” (Hamann 208). Hamann saw Kant and others as stripping language of critical parts of its identity in the form of dissociating reason and concept from language and affording them sovereignty over language when Hamann instead believed concept, reason, and language to be all equal parts of the same identity of his philosophy of language. Hamann is additionally critical of reasons divorce and sovereignty over tradition and experience which is also inextricably linked to language due to his belief that language’s origin is a natural one not out of intentional human design and structured logic.
These critiques Hamann levels reveal his belief that symbolism and imagery take precedence over analysis and logic. This belief assumes that, to humans, understanding passion comes naturally to humans, meaning that the passionate aspect of language comes first when humans understand or take in language. “Poetry is the mother-tongue of the human race, as the garden is older than the ploughed field; painting, than writing; song, than declamation; parables, than logical deduction…” (Hamann 63). Language is birthed from the passionate expression of concepts that humans conceive and attempt to express. From this attempt of expression utilizing the passion that humans understand and express first, then comes the use of analysis and logic to understand what exactly this passion humans have expressed with the language of symbolic imagery and metaphor is. Inherent and primary to language is imagery, symbolism, and metaphor, which comes from the human ability to understand these concepts intrinsically. Language becomes filled with expression and passion, and Hamann believes this is why language is important.
The second critical principle to Hamann’s philosophy of language delineates specifically the main purpose of language to Hamann, which is to mediate humans and to fuel thought. This principle from Hamann means to say that language and thought are tied together as language is the mediation of men’s understanding and relationship with the external world, and is also integral to introspection of the self and between man and God. Hamann says that “Every phenomenon of nature was a word,—the sign, symbol and pledge of a new, mysterious, inexpressible but all the more intimate union, participation and community of divine energies and ideas. Everything the human being heard from the beginning, saw with its eyes, looked upon and touched with its hands was a living word; for God was the Word” (Hamann 108-109). To Hamann, words describe concepts and every concept is a thought, and so language becomes a mediator between humans and every thing we can conceive. Language becomes a verbal and written expression of concepts, which are thoughts and so language as it mediates, concerns itself about the thing it is trying to mediate. However language can never become or truly be the thing it is trying to connect humans to. Language can never fully describe the essence of a thing, but it can allow humans to understand and express what generally this thing is and feels like it is. It mediates, it allows humans to interact with, to generally understand, but it does not reveal the full truth of anything. Hamann emphasizes this idea that language can never truly describe or be the real thing, but it also is never not the thing completely. This does not mean that Hamann thinks language is a free structured thing, rather, he believes that truth is held with God as all conceptions start and exist with him. So, the conceptions that humans hold can only be truly known and understood through a relationship with God, as he provides the basis for concepts. Language is an expression that allows for mediation. Language can not reveal the full truth, but it does not lie either, if it is true language, as it is a mediator of humans to God, through the language and words expressed and the concepts understood.
In summation, Hamann’s philosophy of language is interesting and contrasts from much of the common beliefs of his time. His belief that true language has the precedence of the passion inherent to humans in understanding symbolic imagery over the rigid analysis of sentence structure defines his most important belief of language’s purpose to mediate human thought, perception, and truth in divinity within the world of God. God is ultimately what has created the concepts of the world, and language is a God-given tool for humans to interact with his creation but not to ever fully describe the extent of God’s creation. True language becomes the way in which humans try to express the world the way God meant it to be.
Glossary:
Metacritique: A critique of a critique
Mechanism: The idea that the universe can be compared to working like a large-scale machine.
Mediate: Hamann uses “mediate” to explain language’s most important job in allowing humans access to the truths of God in concepts and words but do not reveal the essence of anything or person fully.
Concept: Hamann uses the word “concept” to just simply describe thoughts within his philosophy of language. Words describe concepts, and concepts are thoughts, and so language and reason to Hamann are the same. Language is how humans mediate their concepts.
Passion: When Hamann talks about how language is passionate or how humans understand passion before the analysis of language is Hamann talking about how symbolic imagery is understood before sentence analysis essentially claiming that language originates as human expression and comes before analysis of that expression. We express before we analyze as there is nothing to analyze without expression of we innately, so firstly, understand.
Natural Language: Language that humans created naturally as it evolved from constant use without conscious meditation. It was not designed by people directly, it simply arose from constant human interaction.
Formal Language: Language that humans created more “artificially” in that it is methodically created, focuses on the structure of language, and was designed by people.