Rousseau's view on language - Essay Example

Rousseaus view on language Rousseau argues that that the need for communication was initiated by the fact that humans understood that there are similar beings as themselves. A question which is analyzed in details by this famous philosopher also focuses on the mystery why humans started using their voice for communication instead of gestures (Scott 271). Rousseau comes to the following conclusion: the main advantage of verbal interaction lies in that it is able to convey feelings and passions while gestures are hardly useful for that.

The philosopher goes further and develops this idea, pointing out that there is a connection between speech and melody. This means that at first the worlds did not have meaning per se and acquired stable meaning only later in history when speech lost its original characteristics. Furthermore, Rousseau suggests that the theories which argue that the origin of language might be easily explained by the necessity of the people to communicate about future actions and coordinate them are mistaken. He points out the fact that when a person is crying, the situation is understandable without any words as the person feels compassion and might comfort the other person without even knowing the language.

As has been mentioned before, one would make no mistake pointing out that speech and song originate for a common source: the desire to convey inner feelings. While they were developing together, there are several factors that accelerated evolution of the former, such as the invention of writing. Indeed, people started to record what they say much earlier than they invented ways to record music.ReferencesScott, J. (2006). Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Critical assessments of leading political philosophers.

London: Routledge.