Philosophical language: Difference between revisions

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An interesting variation of this approach is the [[arithmographic language]], as first envisioned by Leibniz.
An interesting variation of this approach is the [[arithmographic language]], as first envisioned by Leibniz.


Philosophical languages were popular in the 17th century, but some were designed later - until the present day.
Philosophical languages were most popular in the 17th century, but some were designed later - up until even the present day.


==Some philosophical languages==
==Some philosophical languages==
For a full list of philosophical languages which have pages on FrathWiki, please click [http://www.frathwiki.com/Category:Philosophical_conlangs here].


===17th century===
===17th century===

Revision as of 17:34, 26 October 2011

A philosophical language is an engineered language which attempts to implement some kind of philosophical idea.

Often, the term is understood to refer to an a priori conlang with a vocabulary based on a general taxonomy of ideas. Words are derived from more general words. For example, 'cat' would be a derivative of 'mammal' (perhaps with a few levels in between) which would be a derivative of 'animal', etc. While this works well with some fields of discourse where a natural taxonomy exists (as in the 'cat' example above), it fails in most others where any taxonomy remains arbitrary. Philosophical languages also suffer from the problem that words with similar meaning are also very similar in form, which can lead to misunderstandings.

An interesting variation of this approach is the arithmographic language, as first envisioned by Leibniz.

Philosophical languages were most popular in the 17th century, but some were designed later - up until even the present day.

Some philosophical languages

For a full list of philosophical languages which have pages on FrathWiki, please click here.

17th century

Modern times

  • Ro (1904) by Edward Powell Foster
  • Ygyde by Andrew Nowicki
  • Toki pona (2001) by Sonja Elen Kisa