Heymann Steinthal

Heymann Steinthal (1823-1899), German philosopher and philologist, was born at GrObzig in Anhalt on the 16th of May 1823. He read philosophy and philology at the university of Berlin, where he graduated in 1850. From 1852 to 1855 he studied Chinese (language and literature) in Paris, and in 1863 became extraordinary professor of philology at Berlin. In his philosophic theories he sympathized with Moritz Lazarus, in conjunction with whom he founded in 1859 the Zeitschrift fib' V olkerpsychologie and Sprachwissenschaft. Like Lazarus and the Herbartian school in general, he attached supreme value to psychology, and especially to the psychology of society, the study of which, combined with comparative philology, alone could give trustworthy results. In philology he was an admirer and disciple of Wilhelm von Humboldt, on whose methods he wrote several books.

His principal works are Der Ursprung der Sprache im Zusammenhang mit den letzten Fragen alles Wissens (1851 4th ed., 1888); Klassification der Sprachen (1850); Charakteristik der hauptsdchlichen Typen des Sprachbaues (1860); Die Entwickelung der Schrift (1852); Grammatik, Logik, Psychologie, ihre Prinzipien, &c. (1885); Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft bei den Griechen and Riimern (1863; 2nd ed., 1889-1891); Die Mande-Negersprachen, psychologisch and phonetisch betrachtet (1867); Abriss der Sprachwissenschaft (2nd ed., 1881); Allgemeine Ethik (1880); Zu Bibel and Religionsphilosophie (1890 and 1895). His books on von Humboldt appeared in 1848, 1864 and 1867, and in 1884 he published an edition of his works.