Homo, animal tradens et traditum. On the relationship between philosophy and anthropology of language

Abstract

Man is the only speaking animal, where language is both universal and particular. All men speak, that is, they are capable of objectifying facts in judgments: in this sense, language is the tradition of this logical capacity. But, because of the many languages scattered around the world, not all men can speak to each other: language is a translation, more or less faithful, of other people’s judgments. As a speaker, man is an animal that gives, delivers, hands down judgments; but at the same time it receives them. In fact, it passes down judgments precisely because it receives them. In this perspective, prejudice acquires all its value. Translation, as a bridge between fact and idea, the first and the next, the known and the unknown, is a constitutive requirement of life. If it were to fail in human experience, or to take the upper hand over the reality of the facts, the “original language” or the “last man’s language” would not be found, but the same man would disappear.

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