Some overvaluation of language
April 16th 2008 17:28
hey all,
i'm quite tired of the way philosophy deals with language. So, a little post to complain.
If there's something that changes all the time, it is language. The meaning of any word - and the "feeling" associated with it - can change completely in an incredable short amount of time. Take for example "terrorism". 10 years ago most people wouldn't be able to "picture" this word in their heads, and nowadays just by the act of reading it i'm sure it brings you plenty of images.
So, western philosophers spend plenty of time doing desiccations of greek words, or defending why one can only really think about philosophy when doing it in german. Please, language is the instrument, and as maths are to physics, they do not fullfill all the gaps.
Still, it's the only instrument we have in philosophy to express ideas. So, definitions exist to help language achieve it's goal (do philosophy). But these definitions can't be used as final, since one definition allways require the definition of the terms used to define the first one, and so goes the infinite loop that doesn't get anywhere.
To finish with a last analogy with our friends in physics, i think it is good to remember that being a good matemathicien helps finding models to our physical systems, but they do not garantee that the models are good. The important in philosophy it's the ideas, not the language.
cheers.
i'm quite tired of the way philosophy deals with language. So, a little post to complain.
If there's something that changes all the time, it is language. The meaning of any word - and the "feeling" associated with it - can change completely in an incredable short amount of time. Take for example "terrorism". 10 years ago most people wouldn't be able to "picture" this word in their heads, and nowadays just by the act of reading it i'm sure it brings you plenty of images.
So, western philosophers spend plenty of time doing desiccations of greek words, or defending why one can only really think about philosophy when doing it in german. Please, language is the instrument, and as maths are to physics, they do not fullfill all the gaps.
Still, it's the only instrument we have in philosophy to express ideas. So, definitions exist to help language achieve it's goal (do philosophy). But these definitions can't be used as final, since one definition allways require the definition of the terms used to define the first one, and so goes the infinite loop that doesn't get anywhere.
To finish with a last analogy with our friends in physics, i think it is good to remember that being a good matemathicien helps finding models to our physical systems, but they do not garantee that the models are good. The important in philosophy it's the ideas, not the language.
cheers.
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Comment by Damo
Waist an hour or two deciding that common word has the opposite meaning to what it really has.