Ebook: Worte und Werte: Geld und Sprache bei Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Johann Georg Hamann und Adam Müller

Comparing language with money has been customary since Classical Antiquity. The widely held opinion that this topos invariably highlights the conventional nature of language is however a fallacy. First of all, both sides of the comparison are in need of clarification - the theory of the symbols for money is just as problematic as the theory of linguistic signs. Secondly, topoi as a means of argumentation are remarkably flexible and need to be regarded in terms of the state of knowledge at a given time. A detailed introduction examines the significance of the study of topoi as a field of research in that specific area of literary studies concerned with the history of the discipline.