“The Beautiful Theory of Language”

The Humboldtianism of Alexander Potebnya and the Philosophy of Name by Alexey Losev

Abstract

Τhis paper is aimed to trace the reception of A.A. Potebnya's philosophy of language in the writings by A.F. Losev (primarily in the treatise “Philosophy of the Name”) and to prove based on the testimony of the Russian philosopher himself that it was the linguistic philosophy by Potebnya that lay at the foundation. Of course, it was not copied, of the original philosophy of Losev, undoubtedly lying in line with the reception of late Antique and New European philosophy. The circle of sources of the “Philosophy of the Name” is outlined, which Losev speaks about in a note to the treatise “Dialectics of Artistic Form”. What Losev declared on each of the “sources” of his philosophy is compared with the essential elements of Losev's philosophy of the name itself, with the conclusion on which of the sources was more important and which was secondary. The outcome received is that the significant part of elements of Losev's philosophy of the name is found in the treatise “Thought and Language” by Potebnya, to which Losev primarily refers. From the point of view of Losev, Potebnya's philosophy of language contains the thesis that language structures or organizes the process of understanding a thing, produce a thought that is ideally identical to the thing, reproducing the structure of the thing. Also, the quotes from Potebnya in the article “The Birth of a Myth” by Losev are analyzed, which are built into a coherent system, in my opinion, received and reinterpreted in the treatise 'Philosophy of the Name'. The key difference between the systems of Potebnya and Losev lies in the sphere of philosophical method: whereas Potebnya builds the “history” of the name from an indistinguishable sensory array to a self-conscious idea, its phenomenology, the Russian philosopher dialectically deduces the elements of the name from the already present idea.