본 논문에서 우리는 헤르더와 하이데거의 언어개념을 ‘언어와 사유의 상관성’ 문제를 중심으로 비교해 보았다. 먼저 헤르더에 있어서 ‘언어’는 동물들이 본능적으로 갖게 되는 감각이나 표상과 뚜렷이 구분되는 것이며, 단적으로 말해 인간의 ‘이성(영혼)’에 그 기원을 두고 있다. 그래서 헤르더는 이성 없이는 어떤 언어도 소유할 수 없고, 또한 언어 없이는 어떤 이성도 갖지 못한다고 주장한다. 이처럼 헤르더에 있어 ‘언어’란 인간의 사고를 표현하는 도구 형식일 뿐만 아니라 사고 자체의 내용으로 간주되는 것이다. 그렇다면 이러한 언어관이 어떻게 형성되었을까? 이것은 전통적인 인간이해, 즉 ‘인간은 이성적 동물’이라는 규정에서 비롯된 것으로써, 이때의 이성은 모든 존재자를 규정하고 근거 짓는 능력, 곧 인간 주체의 능력으로 이해된다. 하지만 하이데거는 전래 형이상학에 근거하고 있는 이러한 헤르더의 ‘언어’는 이미 그 본질이 ‘황폐화되어 있는 것’으로 간주한다. 즉 근대의 주관주의 형이상학에서는 표상적이고 계산적인 사유에 젖어있기 때문에, 이때의 언어는 존재자에만 주목하여 ‘존재’와의 관련 속에 있는 자신의 본질을 상실하고 있다는 것이다. 하이데거의 비판은 바로 여기에 초점이 모아져 있으며, 또한 이러한 언어의 존재사적 본질을 회복하기 위한 대안으로 ‘존재의 언어’를 제시하고 있다. 따라서 하이데거에 있어서 ‘언어’는 인간이 만들어낸 산물이 결코 아니며, 바로 이러한 사실을 깨닫는 것에서부터 그의 언어사상에 대한 이해가 시작된다. 요컨대 하이데거에 있어서 ‘언어’는 존재의 집이며, 언어가 없다면 우리는 어떠한 방식으로도 존재할 수 없다.

This thesis, centered on Herder and Heidegger's concept of language, is written for the purpose of illuminating their view of language and investigating the relationship between a matter of language and that of thought. For Herder, Human reason is sufficient to create language. He argues that the function of reason is to direct, control and organize our experience. Such a function involves what he calls 'reflection'(Besonnenheit), the capacity to be self-conscious of our sensations by identifying or remembering them. Therefore Herder's approach to the question of the origin of language already presupposes the nature and linguistic endowment of human being; it represents in fact a metaphysical interpretation of both what language is and of the constitution of human being(animal rationale) According to Heidegger, Herder's theories make human being into the maker and cultivator of language. However, the being-historical view of language shows that language is ‘rooted’ in understanding human being's relation to being as grounded in comprehending the ‘to be’. The language of being, that is, its ground in the word as intimation or pro-vocation, is historical because being is not finally secured or fixed ground, but comes into its own in its essential unfolding as undetachable from its own history that cannot be reduced to and identified with the story of merely particular beings. And Heidegger's language is the place in which the truth of being opens and metaphysical one which reveals being of the being. And we learn to know that we should comprehend his view of language not in terms of epistemology but in terms of the method of being's experience. So we can say that the place being resides and sojourns is ‘the language’ and that the thinking of being can illuminate the original meaning in a language as ‘the house of being(das Haus des Seins).’

This thesis, centered on Herder and Heidegger's concept of language, is written for the purpose of illuminating their view of language and investigating the relationship between a matter of language and that of thought. For Herder, Human reason is sufficient to create language. He argues that the function of reason is to direct, control and organize our experience. Such a function involves what he calls 'reflection'(Besonnenheit), the capacity to be self-conscious of our sensations by identifying or remembering them. Therefore Herder's approach to the question of the origin of language already presupposes the nature and linguistic endowment of human being; it represents in fact a metaphysical interpretation of both what language is and of the constitution of human being(animal rationale) According to Heidegger, Herder's theories make human being into the maker and cultivator of language. However, the being-historical view of language shows that language is ‘rooted’ in understanding human being's relation to being as grounded in comprehending the ‘to be’. The language of being, that is, its ground in the word as intimation or pro-vocation, is historical because being is not finally secured or fixed ground, but comes into its own in its essential unfolding as undetachable from its own history that cannot be reduced to and identified with the story of merely particular beings. And Heidegger's language is the place in which the truth of being opens and metaphysical one which reveals being of the being. And we learn to know that we should comprehend his view of language not in terms of epistemology but in terms of the method of being's experience. So we can say that the place being resides and sojourns is ‘the language’ and that the thinking of being can illuminate the original meaning in a language as ‘the house of being(das Haus des Seins).’

Language, Thought, Being, Reason, The Origin of Language