Reflection on Linguistics, Historicism and The Humanities

Jan Koster

Jan Koster dominantly speaks about empiricist and rationalist view in the light of history. He seems

great supporter of rationalistic view of Chomsky. He has discussed German Romanticism, British

empiricism, existentialism and essentialism to support his idea of rationalism. He finds philosophy of

existentialism, Marxism and postmodernism to be different but they are all same to oppose rationalism, he

calls this similarity as received view of humanity. He finds phenomenology of Husserl, Heidger, Jasper

and Merleauponty, and existentialism of Sartre and Camus to be nonsense. Jan koster tries to bridge

historicism, humanities and linguistics by comparing philosophies of different schools of thought. From

the point of view of the author, human nature is either fixed or historically described; he has untouched to

make a bridge between human nature and linguistics. He seems unsupported the idea of human as history,

which he feels can be supported with ideology but practically and scientifically it is a nil idea. Jan koster

is dominantly speaking about Charles Darwins natural selection applied to humans. He discusses some

drawbacks of Charles Darwin. He believes humans are part of history like many other things. He has

rejected the famous philosophy: phenomonolgy and existentialism. He calls their philosophy to be
meaningless nonsense. Because he couldnt understand the philosophy so he calls it to be nonsense.
Rather he appreciates J.F Staals article Zinloze en zinvolle Filosofie in De Gids. He is found to be

supporter of rationalism of Chomsky. He finds out that though British analytical philosophy,

existentialism, Marxism and postmodern philosophy are all different but on one ground they are all same,
they all seems opposite to the modern rationalistic view. He has given name to this similarity as the
received view of the humanities which is result of combination of British empiricism and German

Romantic thought. Received view of humanities are of opinion that cultural phenomenon is not a

universal principal but historically determined on the contrary rationalist are of opinion of common

ground for all humanities. He has compared this with the language. Received view of humanities is of

opinion that there is no universality in language, every language should be understood on its own.
Received view of humanities has also given the concept of Two Cultures . Received view of humanities

is of opinion that if human nature is not fixed it is malleable, man is born with the blank slate and with his

empty mind he learns from his environment and through experience. They are of opinion that human are

born with tabula rosa which is then filled with the surrounding environment, this way they learn from

their environment and make evolution on the basis of conditions. This way received view of humanties is

of opinion that we are born with the empty mind and to fill the mind Darwins theory help them. Jan

Koster talks about the philosophy of Nietzsche Kierkegaard Marx and Kant. He defines existentialism

that man has liberty to find his own life. Romanticists are of opinion that language is the reflection of one

unique group, they deny language as universal and belong to individual human nature. Jan Koster talks

about extra linguistic issues as well. If language is unique to one group of people and there is no

universality, this may we are dividing people in to class, groups and tribes. He seems to criticize Darwins

theory, he address theory to add a step forward to what empiricist has said. According to Jan Koster,

theory of evolution is based on Selective species just as skinner selected a particular sample to support his
theory, if selective theory doesnt have universal applicability, he gives example of linguistic universal

grammar to be universally applicable which Darwins theory lack. Further, According to Jan Koster,

Darwin cannot be called as Einstein or Newton of biology, because they brought revolutions through their

theories by giving proper process to support their theories. Einstein gave the theory of relativity which is

applicable, he has explained a process, and has given a formula through which theory can be proved with

Experiments .Einsteins theory is applicable to all, there is universality in his theory, this way no one can

challenge his geniuses. He compares human nature with the Darwins theory of evolution to support

received view of humanities, according to the writer the way there is change in human with the passage of

time so their nature cannot remain fixed. The other reason of failure of Darwins theory is lack of fossil

records in his day. Lack of fossil record made Darwins theory unable to make distinction between

microevolution and macroevolution. Several experiments have been done to prove Darwins theory of

evolution in laboratory setting. Jan Koster is of opinion that the reason of fame of Darwin is his

contribution in the department of ideology. Jan koster has given reason of the fame of Darwins theory, he
gave scientific underpinning to empiricist ideology and deconstructed the essentialism. All the

philosophers have their own definition of history, For Marx history surrounds in the working

class.Darwins is of opinion that history surrounds in the Caucasian variety, or in the grading of humanity.

Sometime writer seems supports the empiricist views while the other time he supports the rationalist

view. The description of historicism remains unclear throughout the article.

English Language Development Center, MUET, Jamshoro

Bakhtawer Jaleel
Roll No. 14 MS English L-40
Submitted to: Shoukat Lohar
13-8-2014
word counts; 905