In:Deafness, Gesture and Sign Language in the 18th Century French Philosophy
Josef Fulka
[Gesture Studies 8] 2020
► pp. v–vi
Get fulltext
This article is available free of charge.
Published online: 22 April 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.8.toc
https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.8.toc
Table of contents
AcknowledgementsVII
Introduction1
Chapter 1.Deafness as deficiency17
Deafness and the “deficiency paradigm”17
Historical excursion: Hobbes20
Deafness in the context of 18th-century philosophy: Condillac’s theory of knowledge and the deaf of Chartres24
Chapter 2.Deafness as deficiency continued: The “Wild Child” in the 18th century as a conceptual twin of the deaf person35
Condillac’s and Rousseau’s view of wild children35
Itard’s view of deafness in Treatise on the Maladies of the Ear and of Hearing39
Concepts of language and the education of Victor43
Chapter 3.Deafness as difference55
Deafness, norm and normativity55
Historical excursion: St. Augustine61
18th-century empiricism and deaf education68
Chapter 4.Deafness as difference continued: Pierre Desloges’s account of signing from a signer’s perspective and Denis Diderot’s Letter on the Deaf and Dumb77
Pierre Desloges77
Diderot’s Letter on the Deaf and Dumb: General background82
Gestures without speech85
Diderot’s view of deafness and sign language93
Chapter 5.The origins of language101
Historical excursion: Lucretius102
The natural origin of language in De Rerum Natura102
Lucretius’s view of language and animal communication as interpreted in Montaigne106
The problem of human-animal continuity in Lucretius and in discussions today108
Lucretius and the nomothetic theory of language origin111
The 18th century: Rousseau and Condillac113
Condillac’s Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge115
Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality121
Rousseau’s Essay on the Origin of Language127
Rousseau’s Émile131
Later developments with regard to sign language136
Bébian: Sign language of the deaf as a surviving form of the language of action137
Edward Tylor’s view of sign language142
Chapter 6.Conclusion149
Bibliography155
Index163
