SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Starting from an analysis of “classical” philological (and philosophical) works, the author explains how philology can contribute to the perception of the contingency of human knowledge. The early modern discovery of linguistic contingency was inaugurated by Giambattista Vico, who argued that human knowledge cannot exist outside language, and that language itself is a form of knowledge. More than advancing the frontiers of knowledge, philology’s “intrinsic relativism” has the possibility to sensitize readers to the unknown. Its methods of inquiry involve genealogies, ethical adjudication that transpires contingently (rather than dogmatically), narration that transpires through ruptures (rather than continuities), and the revelation of the unknown (rather than the known) as a measure of our humanity.