George Dalgarno on Universal Language: The Art of Signs, The Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor, and the Unpublished Papers

George Dalgarno's Art of Signs ( Ars Signorum , 1661) was the first work in the seventeenth century to present a fully elaborated universal language constructed on philosophical principles. It contains a wealth of observations on human language and the nature of representation in general, and the author takes issue with leading philosophers of his day, notably Hobbes and Descartes, on epistemological and logical questions. By including the first complete English translation alongside the Latin, the present edition makes this seminal text accessible to a wider audience. In bringing together for the first time the full range of Dalgarno's linguistic work - which has striking resonance with modern work in universal grammar and cognitive science - this volume gives ready access to the ideas of this original and stimulating thinker.