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Kardecist spiritism

Spiritism or Kardecism is a reincarnationist and spiritualist doctrine established in France in the mid-19th century by writer and educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (a.k.a. Allan Kardec). Kardec considered his doctrine to derive from a Christian perspective. He described a cycle by which a spirit supposedly returns to material existence after the death of the old body in which it dwelled, as well as the evolution it undergoes during this process. Kardecism emerged as a new religious movement in tandem with spiritualism, the notions and practices associated with spiritual communication disseminated throughout North America and Europe since the 1850s.

Kardec coined the term spiritism in 1857 and defined it as "the doctrine founded on the existence, manifestations, and teachings of spirits". Kardec claimed that spiritism combines scientific, philosophical, and religious aspects of the tangible universe and what he described as the universe beyond transcendence. After observing table-turning, a kind of seance, he was intrigued that the tables seemed to move despite lacking muscles and that the tables seemed to provide answers without having a brain, the spiritualist claims being "It is not the table that thinks! It is us, the souls of the men who have lived on Earth." Kardec also focused his attention on a variety of other paranormal claims such as "incorporation" and mediumship.

Kardecist doctrine is based on five basic works, known as the Spiritist Codification, published between 1857 and 1868. The codification consists of The Spirits' Book, The Mediums' Book, The Gospel According to Spiritism, Heaven and Hell, and The Genesis. Additionally, there are the so-called complementary works, such as What is Spiritism?, Spiritist Review, and Posthumous Works. Its followers consider spiritism a doctrine focused on the moral improvement of humanity and believe in the existence of a single God, the possibility of useful communication with spirits through mediums, and reincarnation as a process of spiritual growth and divine justice.

According to the International Spiritist Council, spiritism is present in 36 countries, with over 13 million followers, being most widespread in Brazil, where it has approximately 3.8 million followers, according to the data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and over 30 million sympathizers, according to the Brazilian Spiritist Federation. Spiritists are also known for influencing and promoting a movement of social assistance and philanthropy. The doctrine has had a strong influence on various other religious currents, such as Santería, Umbanda, and the New Age movements.

Definition
The term spiritisme was created by the French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (known as Allan Kardec) to specifically name the body of ideas systematized by him in The Spirits' Book (1857).

"To designate new things, new terms are needed. This is required by the clarity of language in order to avoid the confusion inherent in the variety of meanings of the same words. The words spiritual, spiritualist, spiritualism have a well-defined meaning. To give them another meaning, to apply them to the doctrine of Spirits, would be to multiply the already numerous causes of amphibology. (...) Whoever believes to have something within themselves beyond matter, is a spiritualist. However, it does not follow that they believe in the existence of Spirits or in their communications with the visible world. Instead of using the words spiritual, spiritualism, we employ, to indicate the belief we have just referred to, the terms Spiritist and Spiritism, whose form recalls the origin and the radical sense and which, for that reason, have the advantage of being perfectly intelligible, leaving to the word spiritualism its own meaning." However, the use of the term, whose root is common to various Western nations of Latin origin or Anglo-Saxon, quickly led to its incorporation into everyday usage to designate everything related to the alleged communication with spirits. Thus, today the term spiritism refers to various religious and philosophical doctrines that assert the survival of spirits after the death of the body, and primarily in the possibility of communicating with them, either casually or deliberately, through evocations or spontaneously.

The term Kardecism is repudiated by some followers of the doctrine who reserve the word spiritism solely for the doctrine as codified by Kardec, affirming that there are no different branches within spiritism, and they refer to believers of various currents as spiritualists. These followers believe that spiritism, as a doctrinal body, is singular, making the use of the term Kardecist spiritism redundant. Thus, those who adhere to the teachings codified by Kardec in the basic works (with varying degrees of tolerance for concepts that are not strictly doctrinal, such as apometry) simply identify themselves as spiritists, without the addition of Kardecist. The works themselves disapprove of the use of other expressions like Kardecist, stating that the codified teachings, in their essence, are not linked to the unique figure of a man, as is the case with Christianity or Buddhism, but rather to a collective of spirits whom they believe manifested themselves through various mediums at that historical moment and were expected to continue communicating, thus keeping the doctrinal body in a constant evolutionary process. However, another portion of followers considers the use of the term Kardecism appropriate.

These expressions emerged from the need of some to distinguish spiritism (as originally defined by Kardec) from Afro-Brazilian religions such as Umbanda. The latter, discriminated against and persecuted at various times in Brazilian history, began to identify themselves as spiritists (at one point with the support of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation), in an effort to legitimize and consolidate the religious movement, due to the existing proximity between certain concepts and practices of it and Kardec's spiritism.

Qualification as a science
Alexander Moreira de Almeida still attempts this legitimation, even calling Kardec's approach "revolutionary." However, the current scientific consensus considers parapsychology a pseudoscience, disregarding the alleged paranormal phenomena that underpin spiritism, such as mediumship, reincarnation, obsession, table-turning, séances, automatic writing, spiritualist art, and typology. Critics of pseudoscience even define parapsychology as a "perversion", as parapsychologists claim that science cannot be the only privileged field that is exempt from the explanations they defend. Animal magnetism (mesmerism) is also present in spiritist teachings, with constant references to mesmeric concepts such as magnetic fluids. According to this hypothesis, some people could perform healings through "fluids". However, the animal magnetism hypothesis is considered pseudoscientific, as scientists have known since the second half of the 18th century that the alleged healings were purely psychosomatic, achieved through hypnosis, without any involvement of "fluids" or animal magnetism.

According to Joseph McCabe, citing the claims of Arthur Conan Doyle about scientists confirming the alleged spiritual phenomena for 30 years, the mediums deceived the researchers. He considers that these deceptions led to the arrogant language of spiritualist literature.

An article published in the British skeptical magazine The Skeptic also criticizes Spiritism for its association with ufology, parapsychology, animal magnetism, and other pseudosciences.

Qualification as Christian
Kardec taught that "the teaching of the Spirits is eminently Christian." In Posthumous Works, it is stated that Spiritism is "the only truly Christian tradition." Spiritist writers such as José Reis Chaves and Severino Celestino da Silva also claim that reincarnation was part of early Christianity until it was condemned by the Second Council of Constantinople. This controversial thesis was popularized even earlier by Leslie Weatherhead but has also been questioned based on statements from the Church Fathers and the lack of references to reincarnation during that Council. Agnostic scholar Bart D. Ehrman claims that evidence that early Christians believed in reincarnation is scant. Christian theologian Norman Geisler claims that there is no evidence of reincarnation in the Bible. According to him, the famous text in John 9:2–3 reflects the rabbinic belief in prenatal sins, according to which a fetus could commit sin before birth, but not in a previous incarnation. He also dismisses other texts generally cited in support of reincarnation.

The qualification of Spiritism itself as Christian has also generated controversy. Dr. Antônio Flávio Pierucci, professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of São Paulo (USP) and scholar of Brazilian religiosity, is one of those who affirm that Spiritism is "not a Christian religion." There are no historical Christian doctrines within Spiritism, present in its main branches, such as the Trinity, the physical resurrection of Jesus, the inspiration of the Bible, and redemption. Due to these differences, many scholars consider it a form of neo-Christianity. However, Spiritist writers argue that Spiritism is Christian because it promotes the teaching of loving one's neighbor.

Early observations

According to followers and sympathizers of Spiritist doctrine, mediumistic phenomena is universal and has always existed, including abundant accounts in the Bible. Among others, Spiritists cite biblical mediumistic examples, such as Moses' prohibition of "consulting the dead", which would be evidence of the Jewish belief in this possibility, since something unrealizable is not prohibited; the consultation of Saul, the first king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, with the Witch of Endor, in 1 Samuel 28, who sees and hears the disembodied spirit of Samuel, the last of the judges of Israel and the first of the prophets recorded in the history of his people; and the communication of Jesus with Moses and Elijah on Mount Tabor in the Transfiguration of Jesus.

Ancient philosophy also provides examples: in Plato's Dialogues, he speaks about the daimon or genius that accompanied Socrates.

Many Spiritists adopt March 31, 1848 (the beginning of the mediumistic events at the residence of the Fox sisters in Hydesville, US) as the initial milestone of modern mediumistic manifestations, allegedly more ostensive and frequent than ever before, which led many researchers to delve into such phenomena.

Allan Kardec

During the 19th century, there was a great wave of manifestations of mediumship in the United States and Europe. These manifestations consisted mainly of strange noises, knocks on furniture, and objects that moved or floated without any apparent cause, as in the case of "table-turning". The supposed case of the Fox sisters in the United States stood out in the late 1840s.

"The true Spiritist is not the one who believes in the manifestations, but the one who benefits from the teachings given by the Spirits. Belief is of no use if it does not make one take a step forward on the path of progress and make one better towards their neighbor."

Regarding his background, Kardec was a disciple of Pestalozzi and a member of various academic societies. His main intention as a Spiritist was to provide some support to human spirituality at a time when science was advancing rapidly and religions were losing more and more followers. Kardec believed he had found a new way of thinking about reality that would bring together, in a balanced way, the rising science and the declining religion. He analyzed accounts of numerous mediumistic occurrences spread throughout Europe and the United States, unifying the information he interpreted in order to codify this type of practice and the teachings transmitted.

"Let us prove to them that, thanks to the teachings of those they call demons, we understand the sublime morality of the Gospel, which is summed up in the love of God and our fellow men, and in universal charity. Let us embrace all of humanity, without distinction of worship, race, origin, and, even more so, family, wealth, and social status. Let them know that our God, the God of the Spiritists, is not a cruel and vengeful tyrant who punishes a moment of folly with eternal torments, but a good and merciful father who watches over his wayward children with constant solicitude, seeking to draw them to himself through a series of tests designed to cleanse them of all impurities."

Table-turning

The first manifestations of table-turning observed by Kardec involved tables lifting and knocking, using one of their legs, a determined number of knocks to respond yes or no, as agreed upon, to a proposed question.

Despite the belief that supposed spirits or geniuses were moving the tables, Michael Faraday's scientific experiments published in 1853 showed that the movements were caused by the ideomotor effect and dismissed paranormal explanations for the phenomenon of table-turning. The ideomotor effect also causes the movements observed in the so-called ouija board and the "cup game", in which participants involuntarily move markers over letters and numbers and also attribute the movements to supposed spirits or geniuses.

Analyzing these phenomena, Kardec concluded that there was nothing convincing about this method for skeptics because they could believe it to be an effect of electricity, whose properties were little known to the science of that time. Methods were then used to obtain more elaborate responses through the letters of the alphabet: the table knocking a certain number of times would correspond to the sequential number of each letter, thus forming words and sentences in response to the proposed questions. Kardec concluded that the precision of the answers and their correlation with the questions could not be attributed to chance. He also questioned the possibility of a muscular hypothesis (such as the ideomotor effect) being the cause of all the alleged movements and messages of the table-turning or other mechanical productions. The mysterious being who responded in this way, when questioned about its nature, declared that it was a spirit or genius, gave its name, and provided various information about itself. Eventually, the phenomenon decreased in popularity and became anecdotal.

Victor Hugo, during his exile on the island of Jersey (1851–1855), participated in numerous table-turning sessions with his friend Auguste Vacquerie and came to believe that he had made contact with deceased spirits, including his daughter Léopoldine (who had died by drowning) and great writers such as Shakespeare, Dante, Racine, and Molière. Faced with experiences with table-turning, Hugo converted to spiritualism, and in 1867 called for science to pay attention to and take seriously the phenomena of table-turning:

"The table that turns or speaks has been greatly ridiculed. Let us speak plainly. This mockery is unjustifiable. To replace examination with contempt is convenient but unscientific. We believe that the elementary duty of Science is to verify all phenomena because if Science ignores them, it has no right to laugh at them. A wise person who laughs at what is possible is very close to being an idiot. Let us be reverent before the possible, whose limits no one knows; let us be attentive and serious in the presence of the superhuman, from which we come and to which we are heading."

Principles

Founded on April 18, 1857, with the publication of The Spirits' Book, Spiritism was structured based on alleged dialogues established with disembodied spirits that, by manifesting through mediums, expounded on scientific, religious, and philosophical topics from the perspective of Christian morality, that is, with the principle of love for one's neighbor, bringing to light new perspectives on various subjects of great philosophical and theological relevance. Thus, one of the basic precepts of Spiritism was established, which is the importance of charity, (Motto: Outside of charity, there is no salvation), understood as benevolence towards all, indulgence towards the imperfections of others, and forgiveness of offenses.

The Spiritist doctrine aims to establish a dialogue between science, philosophy, and religion, with the goal of obtaining an original form that is both more comprehensive and profound, in order to better understand reality. Kardec synthesizes the concept with the famous phrase: "Unshakable faith is only the one that can confront reason face to face in all epochs of humanity."

According to the Spiritist philosopher Herculano Pires, "Spiritist Philosophy, as Kardec said, generically belongs to what we usually call Spiritualist Philosophy because its view of the Universe is not limited to Matter but extends to Spirit, which it considers as the cause of everything we perceive in the material plane. Embracing in its cosmological interpretation Spiritist Science and resulting in Spiritist Religion, Spiritist Philosophy encompasses the entire doctrine."

Main foundations
The Spiritist doctrine, in general, is based on the following points (principles):
 * Existence and unity of God, rejecting the dogma of the Holy Trinity (As stated in the first question of The Spirits' Book - "God is the supreme intelligence, the primary cause of all things.");
 * The universe is God's creation, including all rational beings (Jesus, for example) and irrational, animated and inanimate, material and immaterial, which, in turn, are all destined for the law of progress;
 * Existence and immortality of the spirit, understood as an intelligent individuality of divine creation that acts on matter through a "semimaterial" connection called perispirit, and, like the spirit, is indestructible;
 * Spirit's return to matter (reincarnation), as many times as necessary, as the natural mechanism to achieve material and moral improvement. However, for the doctrine, the perfection that humanity is capable of achieving is relative, as only God possesses absolute perfection, infinite in all things. Spiritists reject belief in metempsychosis;
 * Concept of the "equal creation" of all spirits, "simple and ignorant" in their origin, and invariably destined for perfection, with identical aptitudes for good or evil, given free will;
 * Possibility of communication between incarnate (living) spirits and discarnate (dead) spirits, through mediumship (also known as communicability of spirits). This communication is carried out with the assistance of individuals with certain abilities - mediums - for example, via automatic writing (psychography);
 * Law of cause and effect, understood as a mechanism of universal ethical retribution for all spirits, according to which one's current condition is the result of one's past actions, and one's thoughts, words, and actions construct one's future on a daily basis ("One who sows good reaps good. One who sows evil reaps evil");
 * Plurality of inhabited material worlds: Earth is not the only planet with intelligent life in the universe, and reincarnation on other planets is possible;
 * Jesus, created by God, is the guide and model for all of humanity. According to Spiritism, Christian morality contained in the canonical gospels is the greatest ethical-moral guide that mankind possesses, and its practice is the solution to all human problems and the objective to be attained by humanity.
 * Outside of charity, there is no salvation. According to Spiritism, charity consists of benevolence towards all, indulgence towards the imperfections of others, and forgiveness of offenses.

Additionally, secondary characteristics can be mentioned:
 * The notion of individual responsibility's continuity throughout the spirit's existence;
 * Progressiveness of the spiritual principle within the evolutionary process at all levels of nature;
 * Total absence of a priestly hierarchy;
 * Selflessness in the practice of good, meaning that one should not demand payment for charitable acts, nor should one do them with ulterior motives. All Spiritist practice is free, as guided by the moral principle of the gospel: "Freely you have received; freely give";
 * Use of specific terminology and concepts, such as perispirit, mediumship, and Spiritist center;
 * Complete absence of exorcism, formulas, sacramental words, horoscopes, cartomancy, pyramids, crystals, amulets, talismans, worship or offering to images or altars, dances, processions, or similar acts, vestments, andors, alcoholic or hallucinogenic beverages, incense, and smoke, external practices, or any material signs;
 * Absence of institutionalized rituals, such as baptism, worship, or ceremony to officiate marriage;
 * Encouragement of respect for all religions and opinions;
 * Having reasoned faith, rejecting blind faith that does not employ logical reasoning in its beliefs.

Symbolism
Spiritism does not have an official symbol and prioritizes a denotative language. However, the vine branch depicted in The Spirits' Book – the only engraving used by Kardec in the Spiritist Codification – is considered by the doctrine as the perfect metaphorical image of the relationship between the spirit and the human body, due to this passage:

"You shall place at the head of the book the vine branch that we have drawn for you, for it is the emblem of the work of the Creator. All the material principles that can best represent the body and the spirit are contained in it. The body is the vine branch, the spirit is the liquor, the soul or the spirit linked to matter is the grape. Man refines the spirit through work, and you know that it is only through the work of the body that the Spirit acquires knowledge."

Basic works
Below are some of the main works published by Allan Kardec:

The work The Spirits' Book was published in 1857 and contains the fundamental principles of Spiritist Doctrine. The Mediums' Book, or Guide for Mediums and Invokers, was published in 1861 and discusses the experimental and investigative nature of Spiritism, seen as a theoretical and methodological tool to understand a "new order of phenomena" that had never been considered by scientific knowledge: the so-called spiritist or mediumistic phenomena, which were believed to be caused by the intervention of spirits in physical reality.

The book The Gospel According to Spiritism, published in 1864, evaluates the canonical gospels from the perspective of Spiritist Doctrine, addressing the application of Christian moral principles and religious matters such as the practice of worship, prayer, and charity with special attention.

The work Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism, was published in 1865 and consists of two parts: in the first part, Kardec critically examines philosophical contradictions and inconsistencies with scientific knowledge, which he believes can be overcome through Spiritist paradigm of reasoned faith. Topics covered include: causes of the fear of death, why Spiritists do not fear death, heaven, the Christian hell imitated from the pagan one, limbo, purgatory, doctrine of eternal punishments, penal code of the afterlife, angels, the origin of the belief in demons. The second part contains dozens of dialogues that purportedly took place between Kardec and various spirits, in which they recount their impressions from the afterlife.

The book The Genesis According to Spiritism, published in 1868, addresses various philosophical and scientific questions, such as the creation of the universe, the formation of worlds, the emergence of the spirit, and the nature of so-called miracles, according to the Spiritist paradigm of understanding reality.

Complementary works
The book What Is Spiritism?, published in 1859, serves as an introductory and didactic work on Spiritism.

The periodical Revue Spirite (in Portuguese, Spiritist Review), dedicated exclusively to Spiritism-related topics, was founded by Kardec and directed by him until his death in 1869. It has had the participation of several prominent figures in the doctrine and is currently published quarterly.

The work Posthumous Works, published posthumously in January 1890 by the directors of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, is a compilation of unpublished writings by Kardec, with annotations about the behind-the-scenes of the creation of the doctrine, aiding its understanding.

Scientific method and "spiritual science"
The scientific investigation of the facts and causes of alleged mediumistic phenomena is the subject of intense study, mainly within the pseudoscience of parapsychology. Scientific investigations on mediumship and other "spiritual phenomena" advocated by Spiritism have taken place/take place even within the academic setting, but although many scientists, including renowned ones, have claimed to have provided evidence for the existence of such phenomena in their research through the scientific method, the existence of spirits is neither established nor proven.

Mediumship has been studied by scientists and scholars for more than a century.

Many scientists and intellectuals have dedicated themselves to investigations of mediumship and its implications for the mind–body relationship, including: Kardec, Alfred Russel Wallace, Alexandre Aksakof, Cesare Lombroso, Camille Flammarion, Carl Jung, Charles Richet, Gabriel Delanne, Frederic Myers, Hans Eysenck, Henri Bergson, Ian Stevenson, J. J. Thomson, J. B. Rhine, James H. Hyslop, Johann K. F. Zöllner, Lord Rayleigh, Marie Curie, Oliver Lodge, Pierre Curie, Pierre Janet, Théodore Flournoy, William Crookes, William James, and William McDougall.

Medicine

The relationship between Spiritism itself and medicine is profound, as evidenced by its presence in many spiritist books and the existence of the International Spiritist Medical Association, which brings together medical-spiritist associations from various countries. Spiritism constitutes a vast international movement of charity and healthcare institutions, as evidenced mainly by the existence of such associations, numerous hospitals and spiritist centers, and a notable promotion of psychiatry and homeopathy.

Dr. Adolfo Bezerra de Menezes, a spiritist and physician, wrote the classic book A Loucura sob Novo Prisma (Insanity from a New Perspective), seeking to relate the issue of mental disorders to Spiritism and promote the application of more effective treatment methods in the field of mental health.

Currently, psychiatrist and parapsychologist Alexander Moreira-Almeida, coordinator of the "Section on Spirituality, Religiosity, and Psychiatry" of the World Psychiatric Association, is one of the leading figures in the scientific study of the relationship between health and spiritual experiences, especially mediumship.

Other religions
There is no consensus among Spiritists as to whether Spiritism is a religion or not, despite the doctrine being classified as a religion in demographic surveys. This is due to the triple aspect of Spiritism, which allows it to be classified as a doctrine that aligns "science-philosophy-religion". In the preamble of the book O Que É o Espiritismo? (What is Spiritism?), Kardec states that "Spiritism is, at the same time, a science of observation and a philosophical doctrine. As a practical science, it consists of the relations established between us and the Spirits; as a philosophy, it encompasses all the moral consequences that emanate from these same relations." Some still contest the religious aspect of Spiritism; however, in the book published by its codifier, titled O Espiritismo na sua mais simples expressão (Spiritism in its simplest expression), he clearly asserts: "From a religious point of view, Spiritism is based on the fundamental truths of all religions: God, the soul, immortality, rewards and punishments in the afterlife, but it is independent of any particular cult. Its goal is to prove to those who deny or doubt that the soul exists, that it survives the body, and that it experiences, after death, the consequences of the good and evil deeds committed during corporeal life: the goal of all religions." Kardec also clarifies that Spiritism is a religion in the Opening Address of the Annual Commemorative Session of the Day of the Dead (Society of Paris, November 1, 1868), where he states:

"If that is the case, you may ask, is Spiritism a religion? Well, yes, undoubtedly, gentlemen! In the philosophical sense, Spiritism is a religion, and we take pride in it because it is the doctrine that establishes the bonds of fraternity and communion of thoughts, not on a mere convention, but on more solid foundations: the very laws of Nature."

At the International Spiritist Congress held in Paris in 1925, there was a proposal to remove the religious aspect from Spiritism, but the important French Spiritist philosopher Léon Denis opposed it with tenacity, even in his already weak physical condition of health. According to Denis, Spiritism was not the "religion of the future" but rather the "future of religions".

On the other hand, the Spiritist Doctrine affirms respect for all religions and doctrines, values all efforts for the practice of good, and claims to work for fraternity and peace among all peoples and all men, although it firmly rejects, it must be reiterated, fundamental dogmas of other monotheistic religions. In the case of Christianity, the fundamental dogmas that stand out are the divinity of Christ, the Holy Trinity, salvation or justification by grace (more than by individual works or efforts), and the existence and importance of the Church as a spiritual entity, not just human.

Christianity

The Spiritist doctrine adopts Christian morality despite its differentiated theological conceptions. According to Spiritists, the name given to the followers of Spiritism, Jesus Christ is the most elevated spirit to have ever incarnated on Earth.

Spiritists (a widely used translation during the early decades of the 20th century for the French neologism spirite) consider themselves Christians and attribute to Spiritist doctrine the character of a Christian doctrine since they consider themselves followers of the moral teachings of Jesus. Spiritists base their defense of the Christian character of Spiritist doctrine on the fact that Allan Kardec argued that Christian morality, free from the dogmas of faith associated with it, would be the closest thing to a divine and rational code of ethics that humans possess. Spiritists argue that the dogmas were elaborated over the centuries by the Catholic Church and therefore it is not necessary to follow them to be a Christian. Furthermore, item 625 of The Spirits' Book states that Jesus is the greatest moral example available to humanity, although Spiritism denies any genuinely divine nature to him.

Sermon on the Mount
The Beatitudes are nine teachings that Jesus delivered in the Sermon on the Mount, according to the New Testament. For Spiritism, these teachings are of great importance, and they will now be presented from the Spiritist perspective.

. According to Spiritism, Jesus promises the kingdom of heaven to the simple and humble, referring to the moral qualities of the individual.

. According to Spiritism, only in the afterlife can the compensations that Jesus promises to the afflicted on Earth be fulfilled. Faith in the future can console and instill patience in the spirit that endures the various terrestrial anomalies with calmness and resignation. However, it does not justify the causes of the diversity of evils, inequalities between vice and virtue, deformities, and natural disasters. The vicissitudes of life can be divided into two parts according to the Spiritist perspective: some have their explanations in the present life, while others are found outside of this life. This latter cause, in the Spiritist view, is explained by the plurality of existences in which the incarnated spirit pays for the evils it has committed in previous lives.

The purity of the heart resembles the principle of simplicity and humility, excluding all ideas of pride and selfishness. According to Spiritism, the emblem of purity that Jesus takes in relation to children should not be taken literally, "Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, 'Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it'" (Mark 10:13-15). The spirit of the child, not yet able to manifest its tendencies towards evil, represents momentarily the image of innocence and purity resembling pure spirits. However, the actions [good or bad] taken by the spirit before incarnating gradually reflect in its behavior as an incarnated spirit. Therefore, as the incarnated spirit develops its physical structure, it also develops its psychic structure, which exhibits behavioral characteristics corresponding to the real conduct of the spirit itself.

. According to Spiritism, Jesus makes meekness, moderation, gentleness, affability, and patience a law.

Mercy consists of forgiving offenses, and for Spiritism, the sacrifice that pleases God the most is reconciliation with adversaries, as stated in Matthew 5:23-24.

According to Spiritism, all Christian morality is summarized in this axiom:

"Outside of charity, there is no salvation."

Brazilian Spiritist Federation
The Brazilian Spiritist Federation is a public utility entity founded on January 2, 1884, in Rio de Janeiro. It is a civil, religious, educational, cultural, and philanthropic society whose purpose is the study, practice, and dissemination of Spiritism in all its aspects, based on the works of Allan Kardec's Codification and the canonical Gospels.

International Spiritist Council
The International Spiritist Council (ISC) is an organization resulting from the union of representative associations of national Spiritist movements and currently has 35 associated countries. It was constituted on November 28, 1992, in Madrid, Spain. Its objectives are the promotion of fraternal union among Spiritist institutions in all countries and the unification of the worldwide Spiritist movement; the promotion of the study and dissemination of Spiritist Doctrine in its three basic aspects: scientific, philosophical, and religious; and the promotion of the practice of material and moral charity as taught by Spiritist Doctrine. The main event organized by the ISC is the World Spiritist Congress, held every three years.

Pan-American Spiritist Confederation
The Pan-American Spiritist Confederation, founded on October 5, 1946, in Argentina, is an international institution that mainly brings together Spiritists from Latin America. CEPA has adherent and affiliated institutions in various countries and defends a secular view of Spiritism. The organization takes controversial positions among Spiritists, such as the dissociation between the doctrine and Christianity and the need to update Spiritism in light of science. Since October 13, 2000, the headquarters of CEPA has been in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. CEPA's activities in Brazil are primarily carried out through events promoted by adherent institutions, such as the Forum of Free Thinking Spiritists and the Brazilian Symposium on Spiritist Thought.

Demographics

From 1857, the year of the release of The Spirits' Book, to 1869, the year of Kardec's death, Spiritism gained 7 million followers. According to data from 2005, Spiritism has about 13 million followers worldwide, and according to data from 2010, Brazil – the country with the most followers – has about 3.8 million Spiritists. The International Spiritist Council (CEI) has 36 member countries. Another international Spiritist organization, the Pan American Spiritist Confederation, brings together Spiritist institutions and delegates from 13 countries.

Brazil

Spiritism arrived in Brazil in 1865 according to the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), although there are differing opinions on this matter. as reported below:

"Although since 1853 the country's newspapers already reported family gatherings for the production of phenomenons of mediumship, the Spiritism codified by Allan Kardec only arrived in Brazil around 1860 with the first copies of The Spirits' Book. It was in the year 1860 that the first Spiritist book published in Brazil appeared: Os Tempos são chegados ('The Times Have Come'), by French professor Casimir Lieutuad, a pioneering work that paved the way for the introduction of Spiritism in Brazil."

Through Bezerra de Menezes and Chico Xavier, Spiritism had the opportunity to become popular throughout the country, spreading its teachings across a large part of the Brazilian territory. Brazil is the country with the largest number of Spiritists worldwide. However, in the 19th century, the penal code of 1890 even banned the practice of Spiritism in Brazil and punished those who practiced the "crime" with up to 6 months in prison. Although socially tolerated, especially after the actions of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB) in the first decades of the 20th century, the practice ceased to be officially prohibited only with the promulgation of the penal code of 1940. The FEB congregates approximately ten thousand Spiritist institutions, spread across all regions of the country. There are also several Brazilian Spiritist associations for specific professions, such as the Brazilian Medical-Spiritist Association, Brazilian Association of Spiritist Psychologists, Brazilian Association of Spiritist Judges, Brazilian Association of Spiritist Artists, and Crusade of Spiritist Military.

According to the Brazilian Census of 2010, Brazil had about 3.8 million Spiritists. The state capitals with the highest percentage of Spiritists are Florianópolis (7.3%), Porto Alegre (7.1%), Rio de Janeiro (5.9%), São Paulo (4.7%), Goiânia (4.3%), Belo Horizonte (4.0%), Campo Grande (3.6%), Recife (3.6%), Brasília (3.5%), and Cuiabá (3.5%). The IBGE considers the terms kardecism and Spiritism as equivalents in its census classification.

As the third-largest religious group in Brazil, Spiritists also have the highest income and education levels among social segments, according to data from the same Census. Spiritists are strongly associated with acts of charity. They maintain asylums, orphanages, schools for the underprivileged, daycares, and other institutions for assistance and social promotion in all Brazilian states. Allan Kardec is a well-known and respected figure in Brazil. He is the most read French author in the country, with his books selling more than 25 million copies throughout the Brazilian territory. If we count other Spiritist books, all derived from the works of Kardec, the Brazilian Spiritist publishing market surpasses 4,000 titles already published and over 100 million copies sold. The Spiritist theme constitutes the most successful literary market in Brazil, with Spiritist books leading the bestseller lists in the country's main bookstores. According to the 2010 census, Spiritism experienced significant growth from 2000 to 2010, with an increase of over 60% in followers, going from 2.3 million to 3.8 million followers, with the majority of them being between 50 and 59 years old (3.1%) and having the highest literacy rate (98.6%), the highest percentage of individuals with a completed university education (31.5%), and income above 5 minimum wages (19.7%), as well as the lowest percentage of individuals with no education (1.8%) and with incomplete primary education (15.0%).

Cuba
After the legalization of religion in Cuba, there was a revival of Spiritism, which had been present in the Caribbean country since the 19th century. According to data from the Ministry of Religions, in 2011, there were 400 Spiritist centers in Cuba, with an additional 200 being registered, making Cuba the second most Spiritist country in the world in terms of the number of centers. The Cuban Medical-Spiritist Association has the highest number of activists in the International Medical-Spiritist Association.

Spain
In Spain, one of the great pioneers of Spiritism was Luis Francisco Benítez de Lugo y Benítez de Lugo, VIII Marquis of Flórida and X Lord of Algarrobo y Bormujos, who presented a bill for the official teaching of Spiritism, reading it on August 26, 1873.

Mexico
In the decades of 1850–1860, Spiritism reached Mexico, attracting the intellectual elite with its proposals of modernism, anticlerical reform, and liberalism of free thought. General Refugio Indalecio González translated works by Kardec, publishing El Evangelio Según el Espiritismo in Spanish in 1872 in Mexico and, under the direction of the Sociedad Espírita Central de la República Mexicana, circulated spiritist magazines. Among others, there was also the initial dissemination by utopian socialist Nicolás Pizarro Suárez. In 1875, attention to Spiritism became heated in Mexico City when, in a positivist reaction after publications in the press, a debate was held between materialist and spiritualist students at the Liceo Hidalgo and Teatro del Conservatorio, considered by Zenia Yébenes Escardó as "the first philosophical controversy that was considered as such in Mexico." In addition to its academic presence, popular Spiritism emerged, incorporating indigenous practices and local cults, with a strongly present folkloric imagery in the figure of Teresa Urrea, a spiritual healer who was supported by the spiritist Lauro Aguirre. The feminist Laureana Wright, an already renowned writer, converted to Spiritism in 1889 to promote the debate of thought and women's equality, inspired by examples of female emancipation that she observed in other countries, and started holding sessions attended by various public figures, later becoming the president of the Sociedad Espírita Central. Spiritist groups emerged in various locations, and after a brief decline at the end of the 19th century, attention on Spiritism intensified in the early 20th century through press coverage after Francisco Madero, who promoted it through works he distributed, organized congresses, and, inspired by allegedly psychographed letters, published a book that promoted the Mexican Revolution, becoming the president of Mexico for a short period until he was assassinated.

Roustainguism

Since the 19th century, particularly in France and Brazil, there have been conflicts of opinion among Spiritists, mistakenly referred to as "Kardecists," and the so-called "Roustainguists," regarding the acceptance or rejection of the postulates of the work The Four Gospels or Revelation of Revelation, coordinated by Jean-Baptiste Roustaing, especially concerning the genesis of Jesus' body and the spiritual fall, which would cause the first incarnation of the spirits that failed. For Spiritists who accept the Kardec-Roustaing duo, Jesus had a "fluidic" body on Earth due to being a pure spirit, and thus, the genesis of that body was by His psychomagnetic will, characterizing Him as an agene.

On the other hand, Spiritists who do not accept the work The Four Gospels, coordinated by Roustaing, believe that Jesus had a material body like any other incarnated human being, and its genesis was also similar, through the fusion of sperm and ovum.

Furthermore, Roustaing's The Four Gospels explains that the spirits who failed due to atheism, pride, and selfishness incarnated in primitive worlds as "fleshy cryptogams" (creeping animals resembling slugs), which represents the doctrine of metempsychosis, not accepted by Spiritism since the doctrine of reincarnation states that the Spirit only reincarnates in the human kingdom (Humanity).

Christian Rationalism

In the Brazilian city of Santos, a dissenting movement within the Spiritist movement emerged in 1910, which called itself "Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritism" and later became known as Christian rationalism, systematized by Luís de Matos and Luís Alves Tomás.

Ramatism
In Brazil, since the second half of the 1950s, some Spiritist centers have followed the doctrine allegedly dictated by the spirit Ramatis (mainly embodied in the works psychographed by Hercílio Maes). They differ from traditional Spiritist centers due to a greater emphasis on universalism (common origin of religions) and the comparative study of Western and Eastern spiritualist religions and philosophies. It is also notable for a stronger influence of Eastern thought currents (such as Buddhism and Hinduism) and its proximity to the cosmogony of universalist spiritualism.

Conscientiology
After ending the partnership with medium Chico Xavier in 1968, medium Waldo Vieira began his own research on the phenomenon called "consciential projection" (referred to as "spiritual unfolding" in Spiritism). Consequently, in 1987, he systematized the parascientific movement called Conscientiology.

Christian Renewal
Emerging in Brazil as a dissent within the Spiritist movement since September 2002. While still following Spiritist Doctrine, it claims to do so with greater seriousness than the Brazilian movement itself, which is an argument used for its separation.

Criticisms
Kardec's introductory book on Spiritism, What is Spiritism?, published only two years after The Spirits' Book, includes a hypothetical discussion between him and three idealized critics, "The Critic", "The Skeptic", and "The Priest", summing up much of the criticism Spiritism has received. The broad areas of criticism relate to charlatanism, pseudoscience, heresy, witchcraft, and Satanism. Until his death, Kardec addressed these issues in various books and his periodical, the Revue Spirite.

Later, the Theosophical Society, a competing new religion, saw the Spiritist explanations as too simple or even naïve.

René Guénon's influential book The Spiritist Fallacy criticized both the more general concepts of Spiritualism, which he considered to be a superficial mix of moralism and spiritual materialism, as well as Spiritism's specific contributions, such as its belief in what he saw as a post-Cartesian, modernist concept of reincarnation distinct from and opposed to its two western predecessors, metempsychosis and transmigration.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 2117) states that "Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church, for her part, warns the faithful against it".

In Brazil, Catholic priests Carlos Kloppenburg and Óscar González-Quevedo, among others, have written extensively against Spiritism from both a doctrinal and parapsychological perspective. Quevedo, in particular, has sought to show that Spiritism's claims of being a science are invalid. In addition to writing books on the subject, he has also hosted television programs debunking supposed paranormal phenomena, most recently in a series that ran in 2000 on Globo's news program Fantástico. Brazilian Spiritist Hernani Guimarães Andrade has, in turn, written rebuttals to these criticisms.

In popular culture
Spiritism has been the subject of various non-literary works, such as soap operas, series, and films.

Soap operas
The Brazilian soap opera Somos Todos Irmãos (1966), produced by the extinct TV Tupi, was inspired by the spiritist novel A Vingança do Judeu psychographed by the Russian medium Vera Kryzhanovskaia. The soap opera A Viagem (1975), produced by TV Tupi, was inspired by the spiritist novels Nosso Lar and E a Vida Continua... psychographed by Chico Xavier, developing a complex plot addressing concepts such as mediumship, death, spiritual obsession, reincarnation, and others. Rede Globo conceived a remake of it in 1994. The soap opera O Profeta (1977), produced by the extinct TV Tupi and also with a remake conceived in 2006 by Rede Globo, portrays the main character as a medium capable of predicting the future.

More recently, the productions Alma Gêmea, Escrito nas Estrelas, Amor Eterno Amor, Além do Tempo, and Espelho da Vida also told stories related to Spiritism.

Films
The Brazilian film Joelma 23º Andar (1979) was based on the work Somos Seis psychographed by Chico Xavier and is the first in the country with a spiritist theme, portraying the Joelma Fire tragedy, which left 179 dead and over 300 injured (February 1, 1974). Several other films followed, such as Bezerra de Menezes - O Diário de um Espírito (2006, seen by over 500,000 viewers), Chico Xavier (2010, seen by about 3.5 million viewers in theaters), Nosso Lar (also in 2010, seen by over 4 million viewers in theaters), among others.

Series
The series The Dead Zone (2001), produced by Lionsgate Television and CBS Paramount Network Television, addresses paranormal phenomena, near-death experience, psychometry, precognition, and retrocognition. The series is based on the novel The Dead Zone, written by Stephen King, and the film The Dead Zone directed by David Cronenberg;

The series Medium (2005), produced by NBC, features a protagonist who uses her mediumship to assist a public prosecutor in solving crimes. The series is based on the life of the American medium Allison DuBois, primarily on her work Don't Kiss Them Good-Bye;

The miniseries A Cura (2010), aired and produced by Rede Globo, portrays the protagonist Selton Mello as a healing medium performing spiritual surgeries;

The series A Gifted Man (2011), produced by CBS, tells the story of a renowned widowed surgeon who tries to change his personality after interacting with the spirit of his deceased ex-wife.

title: Kardecist spiritism


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Brad Cox

Brad J. Cox (May 2, 1944 – January 2, 2021) was an American computer scientist who was known mostly for creating the Objective-C programming language with his business partner Tom Love and for his work in software engineering (specifically software reuse) and software componentry.

Biography
Cox received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Organic Chemistry and Mathematics from Furman University, and his Ph.D. from the Department of Mathematical Biology at the University of Chicago. Among his first known software projects, he wrote a PDP-8 program for simulating clusters of neurons.

He worked at the National Institutes of Health and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute before moving into the software profession.

Although Cox invented his own programming language, Objective-C, which he used in his early career, he stated in an interview for the Masterminds of Programming book that he wasn't interested in programming languages but rather in software components, and he regarded languages as mere tools for building and combining parts of software. Cox was also an entrepreneur, having founded the Stepstone company together with Tom Love, established to release the first Objective-C implementation. Stepstone folded in 1994 and in April 1995, NeXT acquired the Objective-C trademark and rights from Stepstone. At the same time, Stepstone licensed back from NeXT the right to continue selling their Objective-C based products. As Apple Computer acquired NeXT a year later, they now hold the rights to Objective-C. Stepstone appears to have gone out of business in the early 2000s.

Awards

 * Online course "Taming the Electronic Frontier" won a Paul Allen Distance Education Award ($25,000) in 1998.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Brad Cox


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Douglas McIlroy

Malcolm Douglas McIlroy (born 1932) is an American mathematician, engineer, and programmer. As of 2019 he is an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College. McIlroy is best known for having originally proposed Unix pipelines and developed several Unix tools, such as spell, diff, sort, join, graph, speak, and tr. He was also one of the pioneering researchers of macro processors and programming language extensibility. He participated in the design of multiple influential programming languages, particularly PL/I, SNOBOL, ALTRAN, TMG and C++.

His seminal work on software componentization and code reuse makes him a pioneer of component-based software engineering and software product line engineering.

Biography
McIlroy earned his bachelor's degree in engineering physics from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from MIT in 1959 for his thesis On the Solution of the Differential Equations of Conical Shells (advisor Eric Reissner). He taught at MIT from 1954 to 1958.

McIlroy joined Bell Laboratories in 1958; from 1965 to 1986 was head of its Computing Techniques Research Department (the birthplace of the Unix operating system), and thereafter was Distinguished Member of Technical Staff.

From 1967 to 1968, McIlroy also served as a visiting lecturer at Oxford University.

In 1997, McIlroy retired from Bell Labs, and took a position as an Adjunct Professor in the Dartmouth College Computer Science Department.

He has previously served the Association for Computing Machinery as national lecturer, Turing Award chairman, member of the publications planning committee, and associate editor for the Communications of the ACM, the Journal of the ACM, and ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems. He also served on the executive committee of CSNET.

Macro processors
McIlroy is considered to be a pioneer of macro processors. In 1959, together with Douglas E. Eastwood of Bell Labs, he introduced conditional and recursive macros into popular SAP assembler, creating what is known as Macro SAP. His 1960 paper was also seminal in the area of extending any (including high-level) programming languages through macro processors. These contributions started the macro-language tradition at Bell Labs ("everything from L6 and AMBIT to C"). McIlroy's macro processing ideas were also the main inspiration for TRAC macro processor.

He also coauthored M6 macro processor in FORTRAN IV, which was used in ALTRAN and later was ported to and included into early versions of Unix.

Contributions to Unix
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s McIlroy contributed programs for Multics (such as RUNOFF ) and Unix operating systems (such as diff, echo, tr, join and look ), versions of which are widespread to this day through adoption of the POSIX standard and Unix-like operating systems. He introduced the idea of Unix pipelines. He also implemented TMG compiler-compiler in PDP-7 and PDP-11 assembly, which became the first high-level programming language running on Unix, prompting development and influencing Ken Thompson's B programming language and Stephen Johnson's Yacc parser-generator.

McIlroy also took over from Dennis Ritchie compilation of the Unix manual "as a labor of love". Particularly, he edited volume 1 of the manual pages for Version 7 Unix. According to Sandy Fraser: "The fact that there was a manual, that he [McIlroy] insisted on a high standard for the manual, meant that he insisted on a high standard for every one of the programs that was documented".

Computer language design
McIlroy influenced the design and implementation of SNOBOL programming language. His string manipulation macros were used extensively in the initial SNOBOL implementation of 1962, and figured prominently in subsequent work, eventually leading to its machine-independent implementation language SIL. The table type (associative array) was added to SNOBOL4 on McIlroy's insistence in 1969.

In 1960s, he participated in the design of PL/I programming language. He was a member of the IBM–SHARE committee that designed the language and, together with Robert Morris, wrote the Early PL/I (EPL) compiler in TMG for the Multics project.

Around 1965, McIlroy, together with W. Stanley Brown, implemented the original version of ALTRAN programming language for IBM 7094 computers.

McIlroy has also made a significant influence on design of the programming language C++ (e.g., he proposed the stream output operator ).

Algorithms
In the 1990s, McIlroy worked on improving sorting techniques, particularly he co-authored an optimized qsort with Jon Bentley.

In 1969, he contributed an efficient algorithm to generate all spanning trees in a graph (first discovered by George J. Minty in 1965).

Awards and recognition
In 1995, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2004, he won both the USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award ("The Flame") and its Software Tools User Group (STUG) award. In 2006, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Views on computing
McIlroy is attributed the quote "The real hero of programming is the one who writes negative code," where the meaning of negative code is taken to be similar to the famous Apple developer, Bill Atkinson, team anecdote (i.e., when a change in a program source makes the number of lines of code decrease ('negative' code), while its overall quality, readability or speed improves).

title: Douglas McIlroy


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Omne datum optimum

Omne datum optimum (latin for "Every perfect gift", a quotation from the Epistle of James 1:17) was a papal bull issued by Pope Innocent II on 29 March 1139 that endorsed the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Knights Templar), in which the Templar Rule was officially approved, and papal protection given.

Background
By the end of the 1130s, the Templars had prospered as a complete military order with a stratified structure, due to the efforts of Grand Master Robert de Craon. Already facing ecclesiastical criticism for receiving tithes and alms, Robert de Craon reasoned that the Order could only flourish with papal support. It was during one of Robert's visits to France and Italy that Innocent II issued the bull Omne datum optimum on 29 March 1139.

Contents
The contents of Omne datum optimum:
 * promised all spoils from Muslim conquest to the Order
 * allowed the Order to build churches, cemeteries, and houses
 * permitted a chaplain in every house
 * leaders of the Order could expel unworthy members
 * allowed chapels for members and burials
 * forbid the election of an outsider as Master of the Order
 * no homage or tithes were to be extracted from the Order

Included in the contents of the bull was the creation of a group of chaplain brothers for the Order. They were capable of hearing confessions and giving absolution, to all members of the Orders. The Omne datum optimum gave the Order the papal sanction it needed to operate independently of ecclesiastical and secular authorities.

Aftermath
Omne datum optimum was followed by Pope Celestine II's Milites Templi in 1144 and Pope Eugene III's Militia Dei in 1145, which together gave the Templars an extraordinary range of rights and privileges.

title: Omne datum optimum


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Talk:Proto-language

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Malrey.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 07:22, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

[Untitled]
a proto-language is not necessalrily reconstructed. The point is however, that if it is attested, it will not be actually referred to as proto-something, because it will have its own name. For example, Latin is also Proto-Romance. It should be made clear that it's the *last* common ancestor of a group of related languages (eg. Proto-Italic is not Proto-Romance, even though all Romance languages derive from it) Dbachmann 11:02, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * A quite important point which I've added to the article. Moreover, it is important to note, I think, that the term proto-language is misleading: we think of languages as including many subvarieties, but reconstructions essentially lead to proto-dialects without any variation. In part this lack of internal differentiation is certainly an artifact of the method, but it should also be remembered that a language such as Latin was originally confined to a single settlement (Rome in this case, even the surrounding rural dialects were different) while surrounded by more or less closely related idioms, and it is only realistic to imagine language families as arising from the spread of a single local dialect which was perceived as privileged (initially likely acting as a lingua franca) absorbing various closely related, more remotely related and even entirely unrelated languages and dialects. The direct last common ancestor of Romance is not the whole Italic dialect continuum, but only the dialect of Rome. Languages such as Gaulish or Hispano-Celtic didn't converge with Italic/Latin to become French or Spanish, they were simply replaced entirely. Therefore there is absolutely no compelling reason to assume that the apparent uniformity of proto-languages is only an illusion and that they really descend from heterogeneous dialect continua spread over extensive regions. Sure enough, even local dialects have some internal differentiation, for example along social class lines, or different registers, but even here there have been attempts, for example, to reconstruct aspects of "Poetic Indo-European" by comparing poetic texts in the oldest Indo-European languages, so this internal variation may not be entirely lost to us. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 12:21, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
 * I've also added the point that a proto-language is not necessarily the ancestor of a language family to the article: Proto-Basque, Proto-Albanian, Proto-Gaelic, Proto-Chinese, Proto-Japonic etc. are useful concepts and in actual use even though it is controversial (for various reasons) whether all of these groups of idioms should be described as language families, which implies at least two different languages within the group. The language-dialect issue is fortunately not directly relevant to historical linguistics: a researcher can remain entirely agnostic about it. In fact, in older usage it was not uncommon to speak of dialects (rather than branches) of a family in general, even when the family was as large as Indo-European. Hence, you would say that the dialects of Indo-European are Indo-Iranian, Baltic, Slavic, Albanian, Greek, Phrygian, Armenian, Anatolian, Tocharian, Italic, Celtic, Germanic etc., while each of these branches is again composed of dialects. Scratching the concept of "individual language" (except perhaps to refer to a written standard dialect) sounds like a good idea to me, given how ill-defined, redundant, unnecessary and what an ideology-charged can of worms it is in practice. Any subdivision of a dialect continuum into languages is arbitrary and I give no credence to any statement "there are X languages spoken in the world" because there is no way to get a reasonably objective figure here. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 12:41, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

"In a protolanguage, each sentence consists of one two-word phrase"

Where did it come from? Any source or links? =)

-- Vassili Nikolaev

 * user:Anonymous56789 added it. I would be very cautious with his edits. For example he made University of Berlin. To my knowledge there are 3 universities in Berlin, but none with that definitive name. I asked him on the talk page to back this up (and on his user talk page), and she has not responded until now. If you know better, then go ahead and remove the above sentence, I think I'm removing the content from University of Berlin as well. Cheers --snoyes 01:05 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC) (ps. just put in two dashes before signing otherwise it makes a horizontal rule (I corrected it).)

Majority of the citations and sources used throughout the article are not from credible sources. When clicked on, they take you to another Wikipedia page on information about the topic they are discussing, such as "tree model". The problem with this especially lies in the fact that when you visit these cited Wikipedia articles, there are warnings at the top. For example, the article "Tree Model" has a problem with biased opinions and does not have enough sources cited in order to verify its information. The article "Dialect Continuum" does not have enough sources to verify its information as well. "Wave Model" is the only citation provided in the whole third paragraph under the subtitle "Definition and verification" and also has credibility issues according to the site, thus further proving the point of a lack of reliable sources cited in the "Proto-language" article. Ultimately, I suggest fact-checking this article and including much more reliable sources which prove these facts. Getting information from articles with unreliable information is a sure way to deplete the credibility of your own article. Malrey (talk) 22:13, 25 September 2017 (UTC)Malrey

A proto-language is indeed necessarily reconstructed. Latin, especially Classical Latin, is not the same thing as Proto-Romance, but it is very close to it. As far as I can tell, there is no difference between the neologism proposed language and the established term proto-language, which is why I'm recommending the former be merged here. See also my comments at Category talk:Proposed languages. --Angr/undefined 20:13, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * The crucial point here is that Latin is not the same as Classical Latin. Latin is a broad and not strictly defined term. In this sense it is true to say that Proto-Romance is a form of Latin, just a (possibly) unattested one.
 * --Florian Blaschke (talk) 11:21, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Proto-Romance has no /x/, has only nine vowels and one diphthong. It's not a form of spoken Latin. Comparative method is inherently lossy, unless the daughters split perfectly and there are plenty of them. --Ivan Štambuk (talk) 20:23, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
 * How do you reconstruct the numeral for "eight" then, for example? As I said, the term Latin is so broad that you cannot define Proto-Romance as "not Latin", and the monophthongisation of ae is attested already in late republican Latin, i. e., Old Latin (as early as the second century BC), and was complete in urban Latin by the time of the Pompejan inscriptions in the 1st century AD at the latest. Many Classical Latin pronunciations appear to be artificial archaisms, spelling pronunciations, so Classical Latin norms must be disregarded because they do not reflect the spoken language; errors and deviant spellings are much more telling. Pompejan inscriptions of the 1st century AD already record loss/assimilation of final -t, which Western Romance, Sardinian and Lausberg zone dialects preserve. I agree that the method is lossy, that was my point! (How well can Midland Early Modern English be reconstructed from post-Shakespearean Midland English dialects?) --Florian Blaschke (talk) 00:10, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Also, already in Imperial inscriptions you occasionally find Z for /j/, B for /w/ and V for /b/, indicating that /j/ had already become an affricate like /dʒ/, /w/ had become a fricative /β/ and fallen together with /b/, which had obviously become lenited to /β/ after vowels. None of these developments are reconstructed for Proto-Romance as far as I am aware; for example, the development /j/ > /dʒ/ cannot even be reconstructed for Proto-Western-Romance as it is not general in Castilian Spanish (only word-initially before back vowels), and seems to postdate the development /g/ > /j/ before front vowels, implying that the language spoken in Italy could already be described as Italo-Romance specifically.
 * Ringe dates the breakup of Romance (with Sardinian and African Romance probably having split off earliest) to the first century BC. That would indeed make Proto-Romance contemporary with Old/Classical Latin. Are you saying Romance does not derive from Old Latin ultimately? Because if you agree that it does, I see no way around the conclusion that Proto-Romance is essentially a form of Latin. Unless you try to argue against this apparently inescapable conclusion by playing semantic games.
 * But if that example isn't clear enough for you, how about the Goidelic languages? As per Jackson's quote on Talk:Primitive Irish/Archive 1 (on the very bottom), there is evidence for differences between Irish and Scottish Gaelic starting as early as the 10th century, there are traces of specifically Scottish Gaelic traits in the 12th century Middle Irish marginalia of the Book of Deer, and by the 13th century, the emerging dialects were certainly already distinct.
 * Hence, as per Old Irish, the well-attested language Old Irish is a direct predecessor of all modern Goidelic languages. Even under a strict definition referring to the most recent common ancestor directly prior to the breakup, the language between the 10th and 12th centuries, known as Middle Irish, is even better attested (but less uniform). I can see no way to escape the occlusion that Proto-Goidelic is for all intents and purposes identical with an attested language, namely (Late) Old or Middle Irish. (For practical purposes, Old Irish is treated as Proto-Goidelic.) Irish is attested ever since about the 4th century, and from Primitive Irish over Old Irish and at least part of Middle Irish, all stages can be treated as ancestral to all the modern Goidelic languages. This is the most unassailable case of an attested proto-language I can think of. And I don't know how you could dispute it. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 23:42, 15 February 2014 (UTC)
 * If it's attested it's not reconstructed so it's not a protolanguage. All this interchangeability of terms between protolanguage and language, and natural descendants from attested forms vis-a-vis reflexes from protoforms is very annoying, because the two are not the same. Both are derivations - the first from real words (set of sounds), the other from abstract formulae which are themselves derived deductively (so speaking of reflexes of protoforms is in fact circular reasoning). I am appalled at how many historical linguists take the approach "let's ignore everyone else's theories on proto-X, this is how it really the language was "spoken" [note the leap from protolanguage->language and reconstructed protoforms->spoken sets of sounds], and let's ignore the inherent deficiencies of the comparative method such as lossiness and conflating chronologically different layers, and let us pretend that there was absolutely no variation as if the language was spoken by 300 people in a single village". I mean, Proto-Slavic is the "youngest" of all IE branches and it's arguably full of **** (from fantasy phonemes such as the opposition of patalalized vs. unpalatalized syllabic /l/ and /r/, to other inconsistencies that we've discussed elsewhere (Holzer and loanwords, Old Novgorod etc.) - I'm sure that you can pile up just as many unsolvable inconsistencies for any other IE branch that go back 1000-2000 years further than Proto-Slavic. Treating protolanguages as ancestors and presenting them as resembling normal languages (either according to a single author, or according to "consensus" among linguists which never seems to have been written only WP:SYNTH-ed by wiki editors) is one giant POV-pushing which needs to be corrected (not that I volunteer to do it...). --Ivan Štambuk (talk) 10:23, 16 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Erm, nobody is claiming that any scholar's personal reconstruction is "the truth" and guaranteed to be identical with the historically existing language. Each reconstruction is only an approximation of an ideal, which is necessarily never attainable due to the incompleteness of our knowledge. But in principle, there is no reason to deny the reality of Proto-Slavic or Proto-Indo-European as a language much like the dialect of Rome ca. 100 BC, Athens ca. 400 BC or London ca. 1600 AD. Note that each was a settlement that had far more than 300 inhabitants, yet still (at least excluding suburbs) considerably fewer than a modern megacity, indeed quite on the level where a local dialect generally has no appreciable regional (as opposed to social) diversity.
 * You also miss the fact that there is no clear distinction between a reconstructed and an attested language. In fact, it is a continuum, and there is no cut-off point whereby a language can be considered attested and not reconstructed in the slightest. Old Irish is an example of a functional proto-language that is attested but only quite incompletely, being reconstructed to a good deal – to a significant extent on the evidence of later forms of Irish – so it is in fact close to a hybrid. Old Persian is perhaps even more squarely in the middle of the continuum, and many of the forms assumed for it are indeed not attested but reconstructed. Gothic and Old Prussian are similar to Old Persian in that they are close to the attested end but with large gaps in our knowledge (Kleinkorpussprache), while Venetic and Phrygian belong to the better-attested Trümmersprachen. Several Iranian, Celtic and Anatolian languages are even more in-betweenish, if they are not outright Trümmersprachen. Classical Armenian and Old Church Slavonic – also both functionally proto-languages – are other examples of languages that are well-attested but still there are gaps in our knowledge that are filled by reconstruction. Similar things can be said about the Tocharian languages. And there are numerous early stages of languages that are just barely attested, such as Old British or early stages of Romance languages, where reconstruction attempts to fill the gaps. Early Norse is hardly better attested than Venetic and Phrygian, but does that mean that it is a reconstructed language? How about all the conflicting theories of what the pronunciation of Shakespeare's English was like?
 * As Baad points out below, every language is essentially a reconstructed language to some extent. Even Standard American English is not perfectly known. A protolanguage is simply the ancestral form out of which the members of a group of languages with a common origin (a language family) have developped through an unbroken line of generational descent and transmission, by definition, because the proto-language is the common origin. There's nothing more to it. How well that language is attested is completely irrelevant. Proto-Tyrsenian or Proto-Hurro-Urartian constitute models with a high probability of having existed historically – even if they consist only of a few fragments.
 * I don't see anything wrong with comparing protoforms, for example. It makes no real difference if I present a long list of all the Germanic cognates of some Gothic word in order to compare it with putative cognates in other I-E branches, or whether I present the reconstruction right away (as long as either I or some one else I cite has done the legwork of justifying that reconstruction by data and analysis), like Kroonen does in his dictionary. In fact, I argue that it is significantly better to do this instead of skipping the reconstructive step. For in that case, you leave the reconstruction of the in-between stages only to the reader, which calls for all kinds of trouble and makes your argument significantly weaker. After all, your reader could come to a quite different conclusion what that reconstruction could be like. Scholars have recognised the utility of Zwischenursprachen and make liberal use of reconstructions of in-between stages now, for the sake of the clarity of the argument. As long as you acknowledge that your Proto-Germanic (etc.) reconstruction is not a cold, hard fact, but only preliminary, and less certain than most attested forms, you are justified in taking them like attested forms for the sake of the argument. Ultimately, all scientific knowledge is not plain, absolutely undisputable fact that is 100% certain, but preliminary and only "probable bordering on certain" at best. Even forms generally accepted as being securely attested can be subject to some doubt, like when evidence calling the authenticity of an inscription containing them into doubt turns up.
 * The common ancestor species of a group of animals is usually equally unattested as most proto-languages, but that does not mean the existence or reality of such an ancestor species is in any way open to doubt. Reconstructed animals are not mere abstract formulae; they are models of an underlying historical reality. Just like with species for which we have some evidence, however, like various dinosaur species, we can never know them as well as an extant species by necessity.
 * Yes, we should not confuse a reconstruction with reality. It is also lazy to present one's reconstruction as fact and ignore diverging opinions about the language, regardless of how well or poorly it is attested. But that does not mean that reconstructed proto-languages do not resemble natural languages, because they clearly do: they have phonological and grammatical structures just like natural languages, even if many concrete details (that are irrelevant to the general structure) will never be known. Moreover, they are not invented out of thin air, like constructed languages. So for all intents and purposes, proto-languages, even if 100% reconstructed like PIE, can be treated as reflecting some historical reality, even if all individual reconstructions may be grossly inaccurate and inadequate. Hell, every language system is an idealisation; linguists usually deal with competence, not performance like the idiolectal, idiosyncratic way I speak right now because I'm drunk – if anything, they're interested in generalisations like the precise ways people's speech changes when they're drunk and if that may have any effects on language change. So all the pontification about reconstructed proto-languages only being abstract formulae is a red herring. Written language is all abstract formulae, that doesn't mean it's not the real reflection of a real (albeit idealised, abstract) language system. It's a false, naive dichotomy much like "chemical vs. natural/organic". --Florian Blaschke (talk) 19:10, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

well, if you are drawing a distinction between a language as recorded, and a language as actually spoken, every language needs to be 'reconstructed', since nobody has the full set of utterances of any language available. I would rather recommend that we split the 'absolute' sense (almost-a-language) from the 'relative' sence (common predecessor). These are two essentially unrelated meanings lumped together at present. Maybe we can treat the "relative" sence over at proposed language, while the absolute sense can remain here' Baad 13:32, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
 * We can't create meanings here; that's not what an encyclopedia is for. A proto-language is commonly defined a common ancestor language reconstructed through the comparative method of historical linguistics. I don't know of any common definition of "proposed language"; it seems to be a neologism and therefore inappropriate for inclusion in Wikipedia. --Angr/undefined 13:44, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Names of split articles
If we split the page into two separate articles and redirect it to a disambig page (which I wholeheartedly support), there's the question of what the two articles should be named. In my opinion, just Proto-language (historical linguistics) and Proto-language (glottogony), maybe? What do others think? Take care, --Miskwito 02:45, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Diagram

– the subject here is proto-language, and an abstract tree diagram with numbers does little to explain it. If anywhere, it belongs to tree model, although that one is better illustrated with some real-world examples. Further, it badly fails MOS:CAPSUCCINCT. In fact, I can't find a single sentence in the caption that does not state the obvious (the proto language of X-Y-Z is named proto-X-Y-Z, duh!). The overall value of such image and caption is negative, as it presents a visual distraction without adding any useful information. No such user (talk) 10:37, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

Is the Kazanas quote DUE?
Nicholas Kazanas is a fringe author and the quote was added by an IP. Ioe bidome (talk) 01:16, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Proto-language