A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE THEORY OF MEDIATION
Jean Gagnepain encountered linguistics through the motivation of Joseph Vendryes who himself was influenced by the teachings of Ferdinand De Saussure via Antoine Meillet. The major part of his career took place at the Université de Haute Bretagne, Rennes 2 where for nearly half a century he developed the theory of mediation ( théorie de la médiation) which he also named clinical anthropology. In collaboration with Olivier Sabouraud, a neurologist at the same university, Jean Gagnepain worked on the troubles of language, notably aphasia.
Unlike numerous schools of psychoanalysis or linguistics, the theory of mediation went beyond brilliant assumptions explaining and justifying Man. It looks to the clinic, that is to say, to the study of pathological cases for its verification or invalidation. The theory demonstrates clinically that human reason is diffracted into four planes or levels. In other words, rationality in human beings has four planes which the clinic requires it to dissociate. On each of these planes, human beings mediate their relations to the world, thus the term “mediation”.
They are as follows;
a. The rationality or logical capacity for language. Human beings manifest the world across the words they speak. Through them they designate the world and realize their logical capacity: the capacity for the linguistic sign, that is the dialectic between the implicit ( grammatical analysis ) and the explicit ( conceptualization). It is the object of glossology, a term Jean Gagnepain adopted in reference to Hjelmslev’s glossematics. Glossology constitutes what is universally accepted as linguistics, whether historical, comparative or general linguistics etc.
b. There is the rational or logical capacity underlying the use and the stocking of tools. Human beings manifest the world by the tools with which they fabricate the world. In doing so, they realize their technical capacity. This is the object of ergology, the science of work/labor.
c. There is the rational or logical capacity underlying our being persons, that is our capacity to institute ourselves socially and historically. In this way, human beings manifest the world in originating their histories and societies. Hence, they realize their ethnic capacity and belongingness, which is the object of sociology, a term used in a more restrictive sense than its current acception.
d. Finally, there is the rational or logical capacity underlying norms and the ordering of our desires, or normative capacity. It is the object of axiology.
The theory of mediation takes for its object the whole of what it calls the “cultural”, ( le culturel ), that is the whole dimension that specifies human beings and distinguishes them from other living species. In other words, the “cultural” constitutes the specific order of reality in which only human beings participate. It is this order that permits them, while remaining natural beings, to transcend their nature by abstracting themselves from it. Thus, the theory of mediation defines culture as the totality of properly human capacities which in the absence of pathological conditions, all human beings share regardless of their historical epoch or geographical setting.
Dr. Olufemi Ogunyipe.
Unlike numerous schools of psychoanalysis or linguistics, the theory of mediation went beyond brilliant assumptions explaining and justifying Man. It looks to the clinic, that is to say, to the study of pathological cases for its verification or invalidation. The theory demonstrates clinically that human reason is diffracted into four planes or levels. In other words, rationality in human beings has four planes which the clinic requires it to dissociate. On each of these planes, human beings mediate their relations to the world, thus the term “mediation”.
They are as follows;
a. The rationality or logical capacity for language. Human beings manifest the world across the words they speak. Through them they designate the world and realize their logical capacity: the capacity for the linguistic sign, that is the dialectic between the implicit ( grammatical analysis ) and the explicit ( conceptualization). It is the object of glossology, a term Jean Gagnepain adopted in reference to Hjelmslev’s glossematics. Glossology constitutes what is universally accepted as linguistics, whether historical, comparative or general linguistics etc.
b. There is the rational or logical capacity underlying the use and the stocking of tools. Human beings manifest the world by the tools with which they fabricate the world. In doing so, they realize their technical capacity. This is the object of ergology, the science of work/labor.
c. There is the rational or logical capacity underlying our being persons, that is our capacity to institute ourselves socially and historically. In this way, human beings manifest the world in originating their histories and societies. Hence, they realize their ethnic capacity and belongingness, which is the object of sociology, a term used in a more restrictive sense than its current acception.
d. Finally, there is the rational or logical capacity underlying norms and the ordering of our desires, or normative capacity. It is the object of axiology.
The theory of mediation takes for its object the whole of what it calls the “cultural”, ( le culturel ), that is the whole dimension that specifies human beings and distinguishes them from other living species. In other words, the “cultural” constitutes the specific order of reality in which only human beings participate. It is this order that permits them, while remaining natural beings, to transcend their nature by abstracting themselves from it. Thus, the theory of mediation defines culture as the totality of properly human capacities which in the absence of pathological conditions, all human beings share regardless of their historical epoch or geographical setting.
Dr. Olufemi Ogunyipe.