>
>Susanne Langer, in _Philosophy in a New Key_ (circa 1941 -- she was a
>follower of Whitehead and Cassirer) argued that the question as to the
>origin of languages (at that time regarded as an illegitimate question)
>might be answered, and she suggested that ritual preceded language, with
>language originating then in sounds which to begin with were only
>accompaniments to ritual. In other words, anyone who seriously starts
>thinking about how thought begins has to find that beginning in motion
>which was not itself thought.
guess what? as a sociologist that's exactly what habermas is talking about. ritual does precede language! ritual is bound up with language and is integral to communicative interaction.
sociological definition of ritual, that is.
ritual, in sociology, is referred to as symbolic interaction.
kelley