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Around 1936: The New Language of Science
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 15:35:41
Abstract
The years around 1936 witnessed an intense intellectual production in all fields of knowledge. All those contributions had a common denominator: the reorganization of their fields around a formal conception of language, which changed our linguistic practices both in science and in everyday life. This seminar proposes a comparative reading of those texts, to understand that transformation.
Objective
During the seminar, students will be able to: ⁃ Acquire a broad interdisciplinary perspective on the history of formal languages ⁃ Obtain philosophical and historical tools for critically assessing the status language and sign systems in scientific practices ⁃ Develop a critical understanding of the notion of formal ⁃ Discuss the methodological capabilities of historical epistemology
Content
The years around 1936 (say, between 1934 and 1938) were the occasion of an intense and fertile intellectual production, opening new and long-lasting perspectives in practically all fields of knowledge, from mathematics and physics to linguistics and aesthetics, and even inaugurating or prefiguring new disciplines such as computability, complexity or information theory. Indeed, within those few years, famous seminal papers and works appeared by authors such as Einstein, Turing, Church, Gödel, Kolmogorov, Bourbaki, Gentzen, Tarski, Carnap, Shannon, Hjelmslev, Schoenberg or Le Corbusier. Despite the diversity of fields of knowledge concerned by this intense production, all those contributions seem to have a common denominator. In essence, they all concern a reorganization of their respective fields around a new conception of language as being of a purely formal nature. In hindsight, it can be said this simultaneous intellectual effort ended up changing our conception and practice of language, of what it means to read and write, both in science and in everyday life. However, although simultaneous, those efforts were not necessarily convergent. Multiple tensions, incompatibilities and fragile alliances accompanied the emergence of orientations such as computability theory, complexity theory, structuralist mathematics, proof and model theory, logicism, information theory, structuralist linguistics or aesthetical formalism and constructivism. This seminar proposes, then, to perform a comparative reading of those original texts, to understand the nature of that transformation, the convergences and divergences between the different projects at stake, and how the singular way in which they have historically articulated still determines our contemporary practices and conceptions of language.
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- DS , DR , MSC
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Registration & Places
- Max Places
- 35
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| seminar |
Around 1936: The New Language of Science
Does not take place this semester.
The course has been canceled for the autumn semester 2020 and will be offered during the autumn semester 2021.
|
No time listed | 2 h weekly |
Offered In
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GESS Science in Perspective (Only the topics listed in this paragraph can be chosen as GESS Science in Perspective. Further below you will find the "type B courses Reflections about subject specific methods and content" as well as the language courses. 6 ECTS need to be acquired during the BA and 2 ECTS during the MA Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again.)
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Type B: Reflection About Subject-Specific Methods and Contents (Subject-specific courses: Recommended for doctoral, master and bachelor students (after first-year examination only). Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again. These course units are also listed under "Type A", which basically means all students can enroll)
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Doctoral Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (More Information at: )