Representation, Alien Languages, and Linguistic Idealism

Abstract This chapter discusses the possibility of alien languages, and the implications of that issue for linguistic idealism, specifically as linguistic idealism comes up in some of Richard Gaskin’s writings. Alien languages are here languages that are different from familiar ones semantically, in a structural way, and through having added elements. The aim is to shed light on linguistic idealism by considering that kind of possibility. Although the chapter does not mount a full defence of alien languages, it does respond to some objections to the idea. The chapter discusses how the possibility of alien languages problematizes claims that Gaskin makes. Along the way it seeks more clarity on what linguistic idealism and some of the arguments for that view should be taken to be.