Géraud de Cordemoy

Abstract

Cordemoy was primarily concerned to show how the phenomena of human language could contribute to a proof of substance dualism and the dualistic nature of humans. He was concerned as much with the physical aspects of speech as he was with the rational aspects, which made his work not only unique among the Cartesians but also among seventeenth-century philosophers of language generally. One of Cordemoy’s major contributions to the philosophy of language was to identify the open-ended and creative nature of language as distinctive of human expression. Mere animals could not achieve such levels of creativity despite parallels and overlaps with human natural gestures and emotive expressions. This led to his distinction between natural signs and instituted signs, with language pertaining to the latter. This was Cordemoy’s way of incorporating the traditional, Aristotelian doctrine of conventionality into a Cartesian metaphysical framework.

Text from: Cordemoy, Gérauld. 1668. Discours Physique de la Parole. Paris: Florentin Lambert. Translated from the French by Margaret Cameron and Benjamin Hill.