Linguistics as method in German histories of numeracy, 1780–1840

Abstract

A late eighteenth-century linguistic turn in German intellectual life transformed language study into a method significant for the history of mathematics. Theologically inspired recognition of language's role in cognition encouraged Hamann to curtail the epistemological importance Kant and rationalists like Wolff bestowed on the symbolic forms of mathematics. Scholars within the tradition of general grammar, including Abel-Rémusat had upheld mathematics as a model of precision; in a debate over Chinese, Wilhelm von Humboldt insisted that historically contingent grammatical structures decisively shaped thought. Alexander von Humboldt interpreted the origins of the Indian positional method using his brother Wilhelm's typology of language structure, as linguistic such as Franz Bopp applied etymology to the history of number systems.