On Language (1500-1799)

"Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one wanders about in a dark labyrinth. (Galileo Galilei, "The Assayer", 1623)

"The great book of nature can be read only by those who know the language in which it was written. And this language is mathematics. (Galileo Galilei, "The Assayer", 1623)

"We think only through the medium of words. Languages are true analytical methods. Algebra, which is adapted to its purpose in every species of expression, in the most simple, most exact, and best manner possible, is at the same time a language and an analytical method. The art of reasoning is nothing more than a language well arranged. (Abbé de Condillac, "System of Logic", cca. 1781)

"Language is the express image and picture of human thoughts; and, from the picture, we may often draw very certain conclusions with regard to die original. (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)

"Nothing more readily gives the conception of a thing than the seeing an image of it. Hence, by a figure common in language, conception is called an image of the thing conceived. But to shew that it is not a real but a metaphorical image, it is called an image in the mind. We know nothing that is properly in the mind but thought; and, when anything else is said to be in the mind, the expression must be figurative, and signify some kind of thought." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)

"It is impossible to disassociate language from science or science from language, because every natural science always involves three things: the sequence of phenomena on which the science is based; the abstract concepts which call these phenomena to mind; and the words in which the concepts are expressed. To call forth a concept a word is needed; to portray a phenomenon a concept is needed. All three mirror one and the same reality." (Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, "Traite Elementaire de Chimie", 1789)

"Languages are true analytical methods." (Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, "Elements of Chemistry", 1790)

"The algebraic analysis soon makes us forget the main object [of our researches] by focusing our attention on abstract combinations and it is only at the end that we return to the original objective. But in abandoning oneself to the operations of analysis, one is led to the generality of this method and the inestimable advantage of transforming the reasoning by mechanical procedures to results often inacccssible by geometry. Such is the fecundity of the analysis that it suffices to translate into this universal language particular thruths In order to see emerge from thor very expression a multitude of new and unexpected truths. No other language has the capacity for the elegance that arises from a long sequence of expressions linked one to the other and all stemming from one fundamental idea. Therefore the geometers {mathematicians] of this century convinced of its superiority have applied themselves primarily to extending Its and pushing back its bounds." (Pierre-Simon Laplace, "Exposition du system du monde" ["Explonation on the solar system"], 1796)