Rousseau and the architecture of language
LE3 .A278 2003
2003
Pyrcz, Greg
Acadia University
Master of Arts
Masters
Political Science
Politics
The architecture of language governs the space between individual and society, humanity and nature. It has enabled the separation of humanity from nature and the formation of individual consciousness, and may be traced from the formation of social convention and human social, political and technological development. Our relationship with nature is altered by language, as our needs are attenuated through the transformation of what Rousseau identified as our amour-de-soi-mme and pit, into narcissism and partiality. This transformation introduces two patterns of dependency into human relations: the first relates to social convention and conventional language, while the second relates human organization and development to the codification of written language. These patterns of dependency produce false planes; the first pattern accomplishes this by removing us from nature, and the second pattern furthers this process by codifying this mediated system into written language. Entropy is the source of the dissonance created at the margins of real boundaries, whose meaning is formed and mediated through speech that are opened through the political and legal-rational structures of language. Linguistic entropy presents both problem and possibility. Entropy presents confusion, uncertainty, and at times contradictory and irreconcilable meanings. Yet entropy also presents an opportunity, as the inertia of social convention is broken and the false planes which are systemically inherent in language are momentarily interrupted. This interruption opens the possibility, held in the inherent creative capacities of language, for the recovery of our humanity.
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:2214