Schopenhauer on Latin

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. II, Chapter 21, § 255 (tr. Adrian Del Caro and Christopher Janaway): The abolition of Latin as the universal language of scholars and the balkanization of the national literatures introduced in its stead has been a genuine misfortune for the sciences in Europe. First, because it was only by means of the Latin language that there was a common European scholarly public, to whose entirety every newly published book directly appealed. Now, however, the number of truly thinking minds in all of Europe who are capable of judgement is so small anyway that when their forum is fragmented and torn apart even more by language barriers, their beneficial effect is weakened infinitely. And the translations fabricated by literary journeymen according to the arbitrary selection of publishers are a poor substitute for a universal scholarly language. Die Abschaffung des Lateinischen als allgemeiner Gelehrtensprache und die dagegen…