The conclusion of an elegy for George Steiner
in th Times Literary Supplement issue dated
March 13, 2020 —
"What distinguishes humans from other animals, Johann Gottfried Herder
suggested in his essay On the Origin of Language (1772), is not so much
their capacity for language as their capacity for arriving at general reflection
(Besonnenheit ) through language. Few thinkers of the postwar era can be
said to have pursued this reflection with as much range and rigour as George
Steiner.
Ben Hutchinson is Professor of European Literature at the University of Kent
and Director of the Paris School of Arts and Culture. His most recent book is
Comparative Literature: A very short introduction, 2018 ."
See as well . . .