Does Language Hinder Our Progress? (verse)

[mball1297]

Originally Posted by Ozzie

Call it what you want. The meaning is not arbitrary to you.

But it is arbitrary to me. As I said, it would be the same if I called it a yumbo or fritna. I can call it whatever I want to myself, therefore assigning any one name to it is just picking one out of a hat.

[Ozzie]

Originally Posted by mball1297

But it is arbitrary to me. As I said, it would be the same if I called it a yumbo or fritna. I can call it whatever I want to myself, therefore assigning any one name to it is just picking one out of a hat.

Where would you draw the line on assigning different names to the same object? Only by failing to draw a line do you render those terms meaningless/acontextual. Ad infinitum naming of the same object would defeat the purpose of language which is about communication in context and never acontexual

[mball1297]

Originally Posted by Ozzie

Where would you draw the line on assigning different names to the same object? Only by failing to draw a line do you render those terms meaningless.

I wouldn't draw the line anywhere. I could use any word at all.

[Ozzie]

Agreed. You could use any word at all. However, that would be little more than a thought experiment wouldn't it?

[mball1297]

Originally Posted by Ozzie

Agreed. You could use any word at all. However, that would be little more than a thought experiment wouldn't it?

Even if it would, it still makes it arbitrary, even to me.

[Ozzie]

Originally Posted by mball1297

Even if it would, it still makes it arbitrary, even to me.

We are only talking about what might make sense to you.

[mball1297]

Originally Posted by Ozzie

We are only talking about what might make sense to you.

Uh oh. Are you sure you want to go down that road? It's a scary one.

[BalanceFx]

There was some work done on consciousness as a product of language. I didn't really read into it much... but I also remember some story about helen keller before she learned sign language and how she described her world.

So much reading to do these days hehe. I just finished the allegorical genesis, proper interpretation of gods first book. hehe. I am also reading blaze, the last of the dark tower by king.