The Enlightenment and the Evolution of a Language of Signs in France and England

During the XVIIIth century France and England turned for the first time to the systematic education of the deaf. In these years rich in scientific, philosophical, psychological, and political speculation there was often crossfertilization of ideas between the two countries. The visits of Voltaire, Montesquieu, Buffon, Rousseau, and Helv6tius to England were as unprecedented as those of Horace Walpole, David Hume, and Edward Gibbon to France.1 Despite this exchange, however, the revolutionary and creative speculations of the French concerning the psychology of the deaf had little or no effect on the teaching of the deaf in England. In France, during the Enlightenment, l'esprit philosophique precipitated a complex of intellectual activities which illuminated the whole second half of the century: this spirit elicited new concepts and theories relating to the problems of language and its transmission, new epistemological speculations about those unfortunate enough to be deprived of some of their senses, namely the deaf and the blind. In England, on the contrary, religious zealotry, political conservatism, a stereotyped social philosophy, and a basically utilitarian methodology of education inhibited the creative and speculative thinking that might have occurred there.