The Slavophile doctrine of language and German science and philosophy

Abstract

The subject of consideration in the article is the influence of German philosophy and linguistics on the formation and development of the Slavophile doctrine of language. German romanticism, which has put its imprint on philosophy and linguistics in Germany and contributed to the emergence of comparative-historical linguistics, had a significant impact on the emergence of Russian philosophy of language. The largest representatives of Slavophilism to a greater or lesser extent relied on the achievements of German science and philosophy, creatively rethinking the most important ideas of German Romanticism about language as the soul of the people, the identity of language and thought, the relationship of language forms with national culture and life. The main method of research in the article is the method of com-parativistics, on the basis of which the interrelations of the doctrine of language of German and Russian thinkers are revealed, as well as the differences that indicate the originality of the Slavophiles' views on the place and role of language in the formation of national self-consciousness. The relevance of the subject of the study is conditioned by the increasing attention of scientists and the general public to the place and role of language in the life of the people and the development of culture. The conclusion is made that despite the fact of borrowing by Slavophiles in their philosophical and linguistic works of ideas and methods of metaphysics of German Romantics and linguistics, they managed to justify quite original doctrine about language, the key point of which is the thesis of beingness of the word. It is the ontological treatment of language that distinguishes Slavophilic linguophilosophy from European theories, adhering at that time to the principles of nominalism.