Dialectics of language in the philosophy of the “Ilyenkov school”

Abstract

The article considers the understanding of language in the concept of E.V. Ilyenkov and a number of his followers. Recognizing the importance of language, especially in the formation and manifestation of human consciousness, E.V. Ilyenkov did not identify language with thinking. For him, those are different areas of human existence connected by social practice. The language is historical. According to S.N. Mareev, social work and the associated need for communication create the first “symbols” which serve as tools of labor, based on the principle of self-reference. The tool of labor is the first real universal. Activity with a tool is abstracted into a gesture. Over time, the language of gestures is transformed into a verbal language. The same pattern is present in the development of deafblind children: activity with an object – gesture, partially imitating activity – dactylic word – verbal language. Developed language appears as a relatively autonomous area of human social being. According to L.K. Naumenko, language cannot be directly reduced to a non-linguistic “substratum” like human physiology, psyche, social relations, etc. Also language is neither a completely autonomous area. The “substance” of language, which requires “sound matter” for itself at a certain level of development, is social practice.