Does Language restrict our view of Reality ??

Question

For example.... Could we, through language alone, describe to
someone who has never tasted one, what a Rib-eye steak tastes
like ?? If not , how could we begin to imagine that we could
describe Reality !

Answer 1

Rib eye mucho bweano senior

Answer 2

Heres a shocker... Taste is a form of language as is every other action a person can take. Without language of some form we wouldnt exist or at least might as well not. The more complicated and advanced our language gets the less we know 4 sure. This is a good thing I think. Cavemen knew how the world worked and there was no one to challenge there point of view. Now we are becoming a schizophrenic world and im loving it. New thoughts ideas and actions never seen before even if they dont all make sense they are new and wonderful. Reality is restricted for a reason and its not because the universe hates you...

Answer 3

Maybe so...

...although I would use "alter" rather than "restrict". Different cultures have different ways of expressing human emotions and experiences. But the person who has never tasted rib-eye steak could possibly relate the unknown specific experience via extrapolation using analogy, or relating the unknown to a previous experience. It think it is possible to have a meaningful conversation of exchanging different perception and interpretation of reality by analogous relations. The rib-eye steak, though just an example is a rather mundane/not-so-unusual experience limited to a certain culture.

But love, death, and other conceptual/abstact/broader experiences encompass all of the human race. We all experience these, and I believe reality is more about these than rib-eye steaks and other simiar everyday/culturally defined experiences.

Answer 4

Absolutely. Language doesn't just restrict our reality; it IS our reality. People have a very difficult time explaining or understanding something which isn't readily expressed in their language. So much of what we consider "common sense" is an expression of our unconscious grammar--such as present tense, past tense, future tense verbs. Some languages do not split up "reality" in such a way, so the speakers' perceived "reality" is different as well. This is well know in any philosophy of language study.

Answer 5

Language by using its very nature is diverse. Take this occasion from arithmetic. a million (in maths) has one standard cost. One (in linguistics) can mean a guy or woman, a selection, a god and so on. it may be like attempting to mathematically calculate something with a million having the values of a million, 8, 945 or 2.a million all on the same time. you may't clarify good judgment with a incorrect gadget. The flaw is in how we as persons interpret words. through fact language is located out from adventure and all our stories selection from one yet another we can't assume that the words or innovations are the precisely the same. that's greater noticable whilst talking to human beings from diverse cultural backgrounds. -One mans dictator is yet another mans king.

Answer 6

Language creates reality. It's all about semiotics--the politics of language and the signficance of words and symbols. (Ceci n'est pas une pipe=this is not a pipe.)

Language develops in a specific cultural context to give words to our reality. In English, how many words exist to describe snow? Scores. What about in Swahili? Quite a bit fewer.

In many African languages, there are no words for "should." You can't say "I should have done that" or "I should have said that." You either do or say something or you don't. Obviously these cultures, as reflected in language, place greater emphasis on obligation and duty.

When we create words we broaden our realities, or at least we have that potential.

Inversely, when we delete words, we can suppress our reality. If we erase the words "revolution" and "revolt" can people still revolt? Does it become impossible? More difficult? Would people be forever incapable of revolt, or would they simply create a new word, of of necessity, to express their desire?

And as you mentioned, it is difficult to use language, even when unrestricted, to explain many things. Like the taste of coffee or the smell of gasoline. I believe that the words exist to describe the taste of rib-eye steak, but very few people have sublime enough mastery of the English language to convery its taste in words.

But language can indeed shape or restrict our view of reality. It can affect our view. Can it affect reality in and of itself?

Answer 7

Without language they wouldnt be ideas, thought, labels. I think language does restrict concepts like God, eternity, love that become kind of absolutes. Language for other situations do expand knowledge and the mind, language in science, in philosophy makes the person more aware of others

Answer 8

Any conceptual designation (as language is) is just that, a conceptual designation, and nothing else: just an intellectual interpretation based on wrong basis.
To answer your question on how to begin to perceive reality, try some qualified meditation techniques. Check this out:
http://www.kadampa.com/english/practice/how_to_meditate.php

Answer 9

Possible. Since language is the representation of our communicated thoughts. " The universe may not only be queerer than we imagine, it may be queerer than we CAN imagine " J. B. S. Haldane

PS Asphire, since when is steak " culturally " experienced.

Answer 10

I think language is the human disability.