she-philosopher.com: Looking forward (the LIBRARY section)

Wilkins’ foray into comparative linguistics dates from 1657–9, when he began work on his universal language scheme. He completed his design of “a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language” by 1665, and much of the manuscript had been printed by 1666 when the Great Fire of London struck, consuming all but two of the printed copies and most of the original MS. It took Wilkins until 1668 to reconstruct the text and reissue it (all under the Royal Society’s imprimatur).

The Chinese character gets special mention in Wilkins’ book because it, along with Latin, was regarded as a well-established philosophical language. Francis Bacon, for instance, held that Chinese characters were ideographic and modeled “characteres quidam reales non nominales.” With this, Bacon accepted the mistaken assertions of Christian missionaries that Chinese writing could be read by any nation in its own language.

While Wilkins emphasized that “it is not my purpose to animadvert upon these Tongues,” he did catalogue their imperfections since

the Defects or Imperfections in those Letters or Languages, which are already known, may afford direction, what is to be avoided by those who propose to themselves the Invention of a new Character or Language ... being the principal end of this Discourse....

Hence, the title of Part IV, Chapt. 6 of his book, from which his analysis of the deficiencies of Chinese as a lingua universalis for science comes:

The Appendix, containing a comparison betwixt this Natural Philosophical Grammar, and that of other instituted Languages, particularly the Latin, in respect of the multitude of unnecessary Rules, and of Anomalisms. Concerning the China Character. The several Attempts and Proposals made by others towards a new kind of Character, and Language. The advantage in respect of Facility, which this Philosophical Language hath above the Latin.

Wilkins’ concern with language reform and linguistic universalism was shared by members of learned communities across Europe. Educational reformists such as Hartlib and Comenius were associated with mystical, cabbalist, and Rosicrucian ideas and utopian doctrines which promoted various schemes of language reform (e.g., the combinatory methods of Lullism). They, in turn, influenced William Petty, Robert Boyle, Theodore Haak, Seth Ward, George Dalgarno, John Wilkins and others of the Oxford Circle, as did Marin Mersenne (whose Harmonie universelle was published in 1636). In 1663, Kircher published his Polygraphia nova et universalis, after having described Egyptian hieroglyphics and various properties of the Chinese writing systems in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus (Rome, 1652–4), a work that influenced Leibniz in developing his own Ars characteristica. In 1667, Kircher published his China Monumentis, with its Chinese vocabulary (the first to be printed in the West) and account of the Chinese language along with the origins of its characters. Two years later, with his Ars Magna Sciendi (Amsterdam, 1669), Kircher tried yet another approach to the universal language problem, this time applying Lullist combinatory principles to the vocabulary of language.

Even Bathsua Makin joined in the investigations into a universally comprehensible means of communication, inventing her own shorthand early in the century, concerning which she published two single sheets in 1616. As a shorthand cypher, hers (like many other language inventions of the day) would have been a universal character of less grand ambition, in which the symbols denoted basic concepts or words not classified according to philosophical principles; “relationships among the symbols were indicated by simple additional marks arranged around the characters.”

Wilkins’ Essay was in many ways a collaborative effort, incorporating the work of Francis Willoughby and John Ray (who devised the tables of plants and animals), William Lloyd (who contributed the Alphabetical Dictionary), Robert Hooke, and Francis Lodwick.

Nor did this collective style of philosophical inquiry cease with publication of the Essay in 1668. Shortly thereafter, Wilkins himself requested that the Royal Society form a committee for the revision and improvement of his artificial language, and some years later, a circle of scholars centered around John Aubrey — including Andrew Paschall, Thomas Pigott, Francis Lodwick, John Ray, Seth Ward, and Robert Hooke — began meeting informally to discuss the perfecting of Wilkins’ “real character.”

RELATES TO: an IN BRIEF topic on 17th-century universal language schemes; a companion GALLERY exhibit on the information design of Wilkins’ Essay; a digital transcription of excerpts from Kircher’s China Monumentis regarding the Chinese language and the origins of its characters in the LIBRARY; a GALLERY exhibit on flying fish, with discussion of Wilkins’ scientific taxonomy “Of Fish” in the Essay; the PDF publication, Time, Soul, Memory, in the LIBRARY (LIB. CAT. NO. DTP2003); an IN BRIEF topic on the “collective intellectual”; the PLAYERS pages on Athanasius Kircher and Robert Hooke


HOME \| the ISSUES \| the PLAYERS \| IN BRIEF \| GALLERY \| LIBRARY \| REFERENCES \| PREVIEWS
PREVIEWS > forthcoming LIBRARY e-texts > annotation 16
Search this site		© August 2005 revised 26 June 2008
	John Wilkins’ commentary on “the China Character and Language so much talked of in the world,” from An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language (1668) Wilkins’ foray into comparative linguistics dates from 1657–9, when he began work on his universal language scheme. He completed his design of “a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language” by 1665, and much of the manuscript had been printed by 1666 when the Great Fire of London struck, consuming all but two of the printed copies and most of the original MS. It took Wilkins until 1668 to reconstruct the text and reissue it (all under the Royal Society’s imprimatur). The Chinese character gets special mention in Wilkins’ book because it, along with Latin, was regarded as a well-established philosophical language. Francis Bacon, for instance, held that Chinese characters were ideographic and modeled “characteres quidam reales non nominales.” With this, Bacon accepted the mistaken assertions of Christian missionaries that Chinese writing could be read by any nation in its own language. While Wilkins emphasized that “it is not my purpose to animadvert upon these Tongues,” he did catalogue their imperfections since the Defects or Imperfections in those Letters or Languages, which are already known, may afford direction, what is to be avoided by those who propose to themselves the Invention of a new Character or Language ... being the principal end of this Discourse.... Hence, the title of Part IV, Chapt. 6 of his book, from which his analysis of the deficiencies of Chinese as a lingua universalis for science comes: The Appendix, containing a comparison betwixt this Natural Philosophical Grammar, and that of other instituted Languages, particularly the Latin, in respect of the multitude of unnecessary Rules, and of Anomalisms. Concerning the China Character. The several Attempts and Proposals made by others towards a new kind of Character, and Language. The advantage in respect of Facility, which this Philosophical Language hath above the Latin. Wilkins’ concern with language reform and linguistic universalism was shared by members of learned communities across Europe. Educational reformists such as Hartlib and Comenius were associated with mystical, cabbalist, and Rosicrucian ideas and utopian doctrines which promoted various schemes of language reform (e.g., the combinatory methods of Lullism). They, in turn, influenced William Petty, Robert Boyle, Theodore Haak, Seth Ward, George Dalgarno, John Wilkins and others of the Oxford Circle, as did Marin Mersenne (whose Harmonie universelle was published in 1636). In 1663, Kircher published his Polygraphia nova et universalis, after having described Egyptian hieroglyphics and various properties of the Chinese writing systems in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus (Rome, 1652–4), a work that influenced Leibniz in developing his own Ars characteristica. In 1667, Kircher published his China Monumentis, with its Chinese vocabulary (the first to be printed in the West) and account of the Chinese language along with the origins of its characters. Two years later, with his Ars Magna Sciendi (Amsterdam, 1669), Kircher tried yet another approach to the universal language problem, this time applying Lullist combinatory principles to the vocabulary of language. Even Bathsua Makin joined in the investigations into a universally comprehensible means of communication, inventing her own shorthand early in the century, concerning which she published two single sheets in 1616. As a shorthand cypher, hers (like many other language inventions of the day) would have been a universal character of less grand ambition, in which the symbols denoted basic concepts or words not classified according to philosophical principles; “relationships among the symbols were indicated by simple additional marks arranged around the characters.” Wilkins’ Essay was in many ways a collaborative effort, incorporating the work of Francis Willoughby and John Ray (who devised the tables of plants and animals), William Lloyd (who contributed the Alphabetical Dictionary), Robert Hooke, and Francis Lodwick. Nor did this collective style of philosophical inquiry cease with publication of the Essay in 1668. Shortly thereafter, Wilkins himself requested that the Royal Society form a committee for the revision and improvement of his artificial language, and some years later, a circle of scholars centered around John Aubrey — including Andrew Paschall, Thomas Pigott, Francis Lodwick, John Ray, Seth Ward, and Robert Hooke — began meeting informally to discuss the perfecting of Wilkins’ “real character.” RELATES TO: an IN BRIEF topic on 17th-century universal language schemes; a companion GALLERY exhibit on the information design of Wilkins’ Essay; a digital transcription of excerpts from Kircher’s China Monumentis regarding the Chinese language and the origins of its characters in the LIBRARY; a GALLERY exhibit on flying fish, with discussion of Wilkins’ scientific taxonomy “Of Fish” in the Essay; the PDF publication, Time, Soul, Memory, in the LIBRARY (LIB. CAT. NO. DTP2003); an IN BRIEF topic on the “collective intellectual”; the PLAYERS pages on Athanasius Kircher and Robert Hooke
	top of page
	up a level: Previews — Library page