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Re: Thought and Language

From:Joshua Shinavier <jshinavi@...>
Date:Friday, December 18, 1998, 11:11
> So, then, anyone who would like to throw me some opinions (either > philosophical or psychological) on the relationship between Thought and > Language as well as the name of your university (if applicable) stands a > very good chance of being quoted.
Why do I care whether the ETH gets publicity or not? But I'll offer some quick opinions anyway.
> Does language form the boundary of human thought? (Sapir-Whorf)
Does it limit human thought? Yes, in some ways it does, as some people pre= fer to rely on language for reasoning, although this is in fact by no means neccessary -- only convenient. But there is nothing which *cannot* be said in a language, even a "bad" one, it's just a matter of how simple or involv= ed it is to say in that language. A language can either be an obstacle or an encouraging factor towards certain types of thought, e.g. logic and reason.
> Does language *create* thought? (Vygotsky, I believe) > etc.
Every language contains a good deal of "personality" in itself; it contains a "universe" of pre-established ideas, such as how best to organize memorie= s (as Danoven/Aroven does, and Lojban seems to be similar in that respect), whether those patterns are made explicit or not, so certain patterns of thi= nking are vastly more convenient in a given language than others. The language cannot create thought, only steer it somewhat. "Logical" languages tend to be rather intense about that influence, while natural languages only hint a= t thought patterns. There are pros and cons for each approach, of course, bu= t personally I prefer clarity as opposed to vagueness and ambiguity over "smoothness" as opposed to standardized patterns. Josh _/_/ _/_/ _/_/_/_/ Joshua Shinavier =20 _/ _/ _/ Loorenstrasse 74, Zimmer B321=20 _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ CH-8053 Z=FCrich =20 _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Switzerland =20 _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ http://members.tripod.com/~Paradox5 Danoven/Aroven: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/5555/ven.htm