[Membroj] Esperanto, logical positivism, psycholinguistics

[Ralph Dumain]

<http://www.doxophiliac.com/2009/06/ill-admit-it-i-think-klingon-is-cool.html>I'll 
admit it. I think Klingon is cool.

Monday, June 1, 2009
Cate Morrison, The Doxophiliac Blog

Interesting reaction to Okrent's In the Land of Invented Languages.

On this particular bullet point:

"The goals for Esperanto sound a lot like those Peter Galison 
describes as linking Vienna Circle logical positivism and Bauhaus 
aesthetics, though Esperanto is older. Inventor L. L. Zamenhof sought 
to create a universal second language to foster peace. I link all 
three because each saw difference as the cause of violence between 
peoples and sought to erase the markers of that difference. The VC 
sought to overcome subjectivity by creating a logical structure of 
thought and expression which could be more resistant to 
miscommunication or misunderstanding. The Bauhaus movement stripped 
ornamentation from their creation and elevated the functional as the 
source of beauty without provincial/historical markers. The object is 
made transparent to the viewer--it is truthful."

Not the best of analogies. But since we are on the topic of the 
Vienna Circle, it is apropros to note that Carnap was an enthusiastic 
Esperantist, but he viewed Esperanto as a tool for social 
communication totally differently from his project of logical syntax, 
i.e. an artificial logical language or formalism. And I have the web 
pages to prove it:

<http://www.autodidactproject.org/quote/carnap1.html>Carnap on 
Wittgenstein & Esperanto / Carnap pri Wittgenstein & Esperanto

<http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/carnap2.html>"Lingvoplanado" 
(Language Planning) de Rudolf Carnap (9/9/2004)

           ( For part of original English text, see 
<http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5037/carnap.html>Rudolf Carnap 
on IALs.)

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