The Search for the Perfect Language (Paperback, New Ed)

The idea that there once existed a perfect language that expressed, without ambiguity, the essence of all possible things and concepts, has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians and mystics for more than 2,000 years. From the Dark Ages to the Renaissance, it was accepted that the language spoken in the Garden of Eden was the perfect one, and that if this authentic language could be recovered, Mankind would be able to comprehend the true meaning of existence. Versions of this belief persisted until the eighteenth century, and even today still have currency, as scientists seek to create a natural language for machines that are artificially intelligent. Umberto Eco's highly imaginative book tells the story of the attempts to rediscover this lost tongue.

"A virtuoso performance… Eco is polymathic to an extent most will regard as practically inhuman, and has never seemed more so in this well-organized, sprightly and exhaustingly intelligent book."
FRANK KERMODE, 'New York Review of Books'

"Eco's latest book is not a ritual document to be studied by cloistered acolytes of the semiotic faith, but rather a wonderful piece of literature, a book to be studied by all with pleasure. The question of the perfect language, Eco relates, is one of the few with which you can actually begin at The Beginning, for the difficulty starts in the Book of Genesis. Eco wishes to know what that first language was. It turns out that many have asked this question since ancient times…"
JOHN GREPPIN, 'TLS'