Alex Malt
Alexander Malt is a postgraduate researcher.
His thesis is focusing on phenomenology and language, drawing on research from a variety of disciplines such as linguistics, neuroscience and embodied cognition. However, having initially studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, he maintains a broad range of academic interests including: Classical Political Economy; Austrian Economics; Classical Liberalism (especially Wilhelm von Humboldt); German Idealism.Working Thesis Title:
Phenomenology of Language
Thesis Summary:
My thesis will explore the extent to which language - especially syntax - structures consciousness, addressing topics such as perception of others, spatial awareness, time-consciousness, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and self-consciousness. Whilst the investigation is a phenomenological one, seeking to describe linguistic structures of consciousness, it draws heavily on linguistics (particularly Generative Grammar), psychology, neuroscience and anthropology.
The methodology used is based heavily on the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, in that normal cases can be elucidated more effectively with references to abnormal cases - in the realm of language such abnormal cases include aphasia, schizophrenia, and the effects of corpus callosotomy. Furthermore, comparative linguistics can offering interesting accounts of languages which do not possess the same grammatical structures as English or other Indo-Eurpoean languages.
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