Port-Royal's Lingo-Philosophical Tradition

The article outlines the idea of the role of the activity of the “Port-Royal Fathers Circle” (J.Rasin, R.Descartes, B.Pascal, A.Arnauld, C.Lancelot), a circle that originated in the Port-Royal women's Cistercian monastery (Port-Royal des Champs), the center of opposition to the teachings of the Jesuits, the metropolis of Jansenism and the stronghold of the development of the linguophilosophical rationalist tradition. The role of universities and monasteries as centers of scholarship and literacy is revealed, the socio-cultural background of this phenomenon is analyzed. The monastic space is characterized as the space “living among books, in books, for the sake of books” (U. Eco). Analyzing the peculiarities of the linguophilosophical rationalistic tradition of the XVII-XVIII centuries (R. Descartes, J. de Cordemoy, J. Harris, R.Cudworth, Schlegel brothers), the author builds the logic of the relationship between the continuity of this tradition and the general linguistic theory formed in the second half of the 20th century. The specificity of the process of formation of research centers in England and France is indicated. The peculiarity of the development of linguistic science during the creation of the linguophilosophical rationalistic tradition is shown: this development required a change in attitude towards church dogma, coordination of the provisions of linguistic science with the dogma of theology, the connection of grammatical and theological constructs. The specificity of the chosen A. Arnauld and C. Lancelot approach is revealed: the potential of the language was interpreted in the discourse of mind, which became the condition for the designation of the grammar of A.Arnauld and C. Lancelot as rationalistic. The sociocultural prerequisites for the transition of linguistic science from the descriptive and normative to the explanatory level are indicated. And although, as shown in the article, the Port-Royal Grammar is related to Cartesian linguistics, much of its specificity is defined earlier (Donatus and Priscianus grammars, works by Thomas von Erfurt and modists in general, works by Francisco Sanches and Pierre de la Ramee). It is shown that the theory of language in the XVII century has found two ways of development-deductive and inductive. Grammar by A. Arnauld and C. Lancelot became a model of the inductive approach. In the final part of the article, the author asks whether it is possible to consider the linguistic and philosophical research program created within the walls of Port Royal as similar to the atomic programs of Democritus, the mathematics of the Pythagoreans and Plato, the continuum of Aristotle. The author gives a positive answer to this question, interpreting the research program as a phenomenon, which is based on a novelty approach, a new way of analyzing facts, and a special style of scientific thinking. Taken together, this meant a transition to the problems of the linguistic and philosophical level.

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