Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The Sacrifice of Language Cont'd

People write many words. Some write about their jobs, some their churches, their children, cooking, etc. No one just writes. Language exists to serve us in the expression and exploration of ideas, ideas greater than language itself. The pasty, pale earth delivered by drought to the pond behind my house stands taller than the words which describe it. The dying empire of frogs banded around that dying pond exists whether I put it into words or no.

But a funny thing has happened. Language has penetrated and fused itself with the thought process. I cannot contemplate the significance of my dying pond apart from language in my head. So, language exists for the "exploration of ideas". Language gives us the categories for making sense of what we see and hear. Without it, we'd be sunk. This deserves more convincing. I leave it to the reader to attempt an a-lingual thought.

More to come, hopefully.
Posted by at 6:00 AM
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2 comments:

  1. It's beauty and power is from our source: we were spoken into existence. There are words at the center, the initial moment of all of life. How else could we comprehend life except through our own use of language? Why else do we create (with words, images, etc.) than to follow in the steps of the Creator who in His creativity gave us our nature? Words are will worth giving consideration to. Thank you for your thoughts, Hudson!

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  2. Woah! I was going to comment and look who beat me to it! Didn't see that coming at all.

    Hooray for an update. I enjoy reading your stories and thoughts. It still surprises me each time to see someone so gifted in physics do so well with language too. If you want to talk more about philosophy of language, Nathanael is your guy. I wish I knew more, and in this post you sounded a good bit like him.

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