Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, Czy historia i filologia mogą umiejętnie rozwiązać swoje zadanie bez ścisłego związku z filozofią, a mianowicie z filozofią historii i filozofią języka?

Abstract

Can History and Philology Competently Address Their Tasks without a Close Connection with Philosophy, Namely Philosophy of History and Philosophy of Language? The thesis by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay published here is probably the oldest of the texts by the Polish linguist. The text was submitted in 1864 as a part of the logic and philosophy course taught at the Warsaw Main School by Henryk Struve. It clearly shows an attempt by the young researcher to embark on a scholarly path, which turns out to be far from the one Baudouin de Courtenay took later in his academic activity. The future linguist argues here in defence of linguistics as a so-called physical science (a natural skill, as he often calls it in his dissertation), thus contrasting it with philology and history.

Keywords

• Jan Baudouin de Courtenay
• Henryk Struve
• juvenilia
• linguistics
• philosophy
• philology