Theory as Meta-Discourse

This chapter seeks to outline the emergence of modernity as a philosophical perspective and its impact upon language and the social. Enlightenment metaphysics are addressed through a scrutiny of how Kant, Hegel and their peers understood the relationship between language, the state and society. The outcome was a specific form of the nation-state and the place of a single language, economy and labour market within it. This form was subdivided in accordance with how French and German orientations constructed the relationship between the state and nation. Henceforth the state determines how the future of language unwinds. It is demonstrated by how Foucault’s work on episteme traces the changing nature of language.