Chips from a German workshop

About this book

F. Max Müller's Chips from a German Workshop opens as a wide-ranging scholarly collection devoted above all to the science of language, but also to the larger questions language reveals about history, religion, and human thought. Framed by a dedication to Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley and essays rich in Greek, Sanskrit, Hebrew, and other linguistic forms, the volume signals Müller's extraordinary range as a philologist and cultural critic. Across lectures and articles on comparative philology, mythology, missions, and Oriental studies, he argues that universities must make room for new fields of inquiry, just as France and Germany had done with Egyptology, cuneiform, Persian, and Chinese studies. Müller defends neglected disciplines such as Celtic scholarship and traces the rise of comparative linguistics from the first discoveries in Sanskrit to the more exact methods of scholars like Grimm, Zeuss, Miklosich, Schleicher, Curtius, and Corssen. He calls for Oxford to restore fellowships to their original purpose: fostering research, serious learning, and intellectual leadership rather than comfortable idleness. The volume also extends into debates on religion, questioning what truly makes a faith missionary and examining Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Brahmanism through that lens. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.