Verbatim quote · defining passage

“Gans' originary hypothesis completes the "linguistic turn" of 20th century thought—the intuition guiding the dismantling of metaphysics by 20th century thinkers was that language doesn't represent some external and independent reality; on the contrary, language, or more generally, signs, is constitutive of anything we can call a human reality. What Gans' hypothesis does is explain why language is constitutive: because it was through the sign that our immediate ancestors transcended the mimetic rivalry that perpetually threatened their existence by discovering/inventing a way of deferring violence.”

— Adam Katz, Another Version of "Idioms of Inquiry" Despite the Changed Title (Adam Katz) · Aug 2009 · Essays & Articles