Ideological Linquistics

There could be no Ideologie or "science of ideas" without a precise, meaningful language, meaning a scientific language. The French Ideologists were philosophical materialists. That is not to say that all 'Ideologues' , as Napoleon contemptuously called them, were atheists; but for all practical purposes they rejected theological and metaphysical rationalizations justifying arbitrary religious and political authority, and tried to rely instead on the evidence of their senses and careful reflection thereupon. The Ideologists acknowledged Condillac as their founding philosopher. Condillac's philosophy was based on Locke's view, that there are no innate ideas or ideas prior to experience. Locke concluded that knowledge is derived from sensation and reflection. The negative notion that there are no innate ideas is contrary to the gnostic notion of the supreme being, who is purportedly the beginning and end of metaphysics.

In fact Locke, whose influence in America was profound, was called an atheist by more than one Christian, particularly by Christians who believed they were in touch with god. Nonetheless, Locke's doctrine was received well by the Deists and the predominant Protestant sects who rejected papal authority and the divine right of kings. Locke's Reflection left a loophole big enough in which to contrive countless sects. In any event, an agnostic could go about his practical affairs after confessing the existence of god with the proviso that, despite sensational claims to the contrary, god cannot be sensationally apprehended or mentally comprehended.

Condillac dropped Locke's Reflection, and insisted that knowledge is derived from sensation alone. Destutt de Tracy agreed, and dubbed the late-Enlightenment ideology ideologie. Said revolutionary "science of ideas" would analyze the metaphysical nonsense and reduce hazy and confused thinking to its radical elements, to its simple ideas. Since the objects of thought or ideas are expressed by language, Tracy, like Condillac and other Enlightenment thinkers, was inclined to trace language back to its obscure origin, back to its radical, natural roots, some time before its meanings became confused by metaphysical nonsense.

Tracy's approach was therefore reductive or atomistic in that it would reduce language to its elements; and naturalistic, inasmuch as Tracy sought a natural rather than a divine-gift or miraculous explanation for the origin and development of language. The Ideologist of linquistics were duty bound to eliminate vague concepts and dispense with false propositions if not prophets. First of all, the metaphysical "innate" ideas must be exterminated so that language can serve its natural function of satisfying human needs.

Language, averred Tracy, is a system of signs with fixed meanings. Absent language, man is not man: witness the evidence of feral children raised by bears and wolves. Tracy's man is a sensible man, part brute but superior to brutes by virtue of the complex organization of his brain, which enables him to metaphorically 'manipulate' symbols. While animals depend on relatively fixed, innate instinct, man's "instinct" is learned, his instinct is acquired habit.

The better or more useful the language, the better and more useful is the man. The objective of scientific linguistics is to renovate the linguistic system so that it will be true to perceived facts. The earliest signs used by humankind designated sensible objects. Adam Smith had observed that the first words were grunted nouns, denoting or naming objects; adjectives developed as names of qualities including motion (verbs). Tracy opined that the earliest language was a sign language or language of physical action, of gestures complemented by articulated sounds, signifying feelings.

According to this ideological line, general or complex ideas are produced by derivation or abstraction through reflection on the simpler ideas associated with feelings or sensations. The abstractions, however, tend to habitual confusion and imprecision. Therefore the cure: a rigorous chain of ideas must be developed and strengthened by repetition until clear thinking becomes a good habit. Habits are quick judgments. Words habitually sum up previous mental operations for further reflection, analysis and synthesis. Therefore language has a symbolic history, a history of signs relative to previous circumstances. As man develops from animal to man, language develops, just as an egg develops into a chicken.

Now Tracy studied the origin, usage, habit and precision of language at great length. He concluded, for one thing, that alphabetic or phonetic language is far superior to hieroglyphic or pictoral language because phonetic signs are easier to learn, manipulate, combine, and communicate. As for the development of a precise, "ideological" language, Tracy found a fly in his ointment, one that wrecked his radical reformation program: he eventually recognized that verbal language is generally qualitative rather than quantitative like mathematical and algebraic language, hence is inherently imprecise.

The virtue of algebraic language is that its symbols are precise enough for its operations to arrive at definite conclusions. On the other hand, qualitative grammatical operations can never arrive at precise conclusions, but rather describe increasingly vague and complex feelings. Qualities, after all, are universals which are applicable in different ways to a wide variety of particulars - each particular being a unique coincidence of universals - universals, in turn, vary from the ideal form, are shaded, et cetera, so on and so forth ad infinitum.

Despite the flaws in Tracy's ideological system, we should not give up the ancient quest for clear thinking and precise expression of our feelings and thoughts, keeping in mind that all living systems are very complex, and that they are, along with our abstract simplifications, subject to change.