Martin Anton Maurus Marty (German: [ˈmarti]; 18 October 1847 – 1 October 1914) was a Swiss-born Austrian philosopher and Catholic priest. He specialized in philosophy of language, philosophy of psychology, and ontology.

Anton Marty
Born18 October 1847
Died1 October 1914(1914-10-01) (aged 66)
Alma materUniversity of Würzburg
University of Göttingen
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolSchool of Brentano
InstitutionsFranz-Josephs-Universität Czernowitz
(1875–1880)
University of Prague
(1880–1913)
ThesisKritik der Theorien über den Sprachursprung (Criticism of Theories About the Origin of Language) (1875)
Doctoral advisorHermann Lotze
Other academic advisorsFranz Brentano
Doctoral studentsAlfred Kastil
Main interests
Philosophy of language, psychology, ontology
Notable ideas
Descriptive semasiology[1]
Inner linguistic form[1]
Autosemantica vs. synsemantica[1]
Presentational suggestives[1]
Impersonals[1]

Biography edit

Marty was a student and follower of Franz Brentano, his teacher at the University of Würzburg in 1868–70. He was ordained in 1870, but resigned from the priesthood in 1872.

His academic career began at Gottingen where, under Hermann Lotze, he took his degree by submitting an 1875 thesis on the origin of language entitled Kritik der Theorien uber den Sprachursprung.[2][3] An expanded version of which was also published that same year.[4][5]

He taught at the Franz-Josephs-Universität Czernowitz from 1875 to 1880. He then taught at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague.[2] Both universities fell within the Austrian territories of the Austro-Hungarian empire at that time, as they would for the remainder of Marty's lifetime. The latter university would soon after his appointment split into two separate, though linked, Czech and German institutions. Marty would remain at the German Charles-Ferdinand University, where he would also serve as dean and then rector, until his retirement in 1913.[2]

He died in 1914 at the age of 66.

Thought edit

Marty was concerned with a synchronic analysis of language itself and has been described as a pre-cursor to linguistic structuralists.[1] Marty distinguished between 'autosemantica' and 'synsemantica', the former can be used by themselves and the latter cannot. Examples of autosemantica include things like nouns and proper names while examples of the latter are things like conjunctions.[6][1] He used the term 'impersonals' to refer to expressions he considered to be without a subject like "it is raining".[5][7]

Legacy edit

The Prague School linguists were influenced by his works.[8]

Franz Kafka also attended his philosophy lectures while at the University of Prague.[9]

Works edit

Nachlass works

Edited by Josef Eisenmeierand, Aflred Kastil, & Oskar Kraus:

Gesammelte Schriften ('Collected writings')

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Anton Marty" at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  2. ^ a b c Albertazzi, Liliana (1996), Albertazzi, Liliana; Libardi, Massimo; Poli, Roberto (eds.), "Anton Marty (1847–1914)", The School of Franz Brentano, vol. 52, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 83–108, doi:10.1007/978-94-015-8676-4_3, ISBN 978-90-481-4628-4, retrieved 2024-02-18
  3. ^ "'Kritik der Theorien über den Sprachursprung : Inauguraldissertation' - Details | MDZ". www.digitale-sammlungen.de. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  4. ^ Marty, Anton (1875). Ueber den ursprung der sprache (in German). Würzburg: A. Stuber – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ a b Rollinger, Robin; Janousek, Hynek (2023), Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.), "Anton Marty", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2023 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2024-02-18
  6. ^ Thass-Thienemann, Theodore (1973). "Repetition". The Interpretation of Language Volume 1: Understanding the Symbolic Meaning of Language. Jason Aronson. p. 141. ISBN 0-87668-087-2 – via Internet Archive. In descriptive linguistics two elements can be distinguished in every utterance. On the one hand, there are independent words, nouns, proper names, called autosemantica. On the other hand, one can find verbal elements, synsemantica, which cannot be used independently. [...] This distinction was first introduced by the inaugurator of descriptive linguistics, Anton Marty.
  7. ^ Rollinger, Robin D (2014). "Brentano and Marty on Logical Names and Linguistic Fictions: A Parting of Ways in the Philosophy of Language.". In Cesalli, Laurent; Friedrich, Janette (eds.). Anton Marty & Karl Bühler: Between Mind and Language. Schwabe Verlag. p. 176. ISBN 9783796532146.
  8. ^ Roman Jakobson (1933), "La scuola linguistica di Praga", La cultura 12, 633–641, esp. p. 637., reprinted in Selected Writings (1962)
  9. ^ Heims, Neil (2004). "Biography of Franz Kafka". In Harold Bloom (ed.). Franz Kafka (1st ed.). Philadelphia: Chelsea House. p. 28. ISBN 079107871X – via Internet Archive. Besides attending lectures twenty hours a week on German, Roman, and ecclesiastical law, Kafka attended lectures on German literature, art history, and philosophy. The philosophy lectures he attended were delivered by Anton Marty who had been a pupil of Franz Brentano, a philosopher concerned with the unity of consciousness and its objects, and upon whose work, Husserl built Phenomenology. Through Marty, Kafka gained admittance to the "exclusive Brentano circle which met once a fortnight at the Café Louvre." (Hayman 36)

References edit

External links edit