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Okay, for some people who may have already studied this I apologise, but its new to me and was a bit of a mind job.
So I'm reading this article for uni, and its blabbering on about nothing in particular, and then comes this statement, which basically takes my head off. I can think of nothing else but this. So I have to stop work, and just sit thinking about this idea.
Basically its that we think using the language we talk in. Your sitting there, talking to yourself in your head. Which means that our ability to think is constrained by our language. I know that this is a very simple way of putting it.
Anyway, I just thought this was really cool. And it regained my faith in learning. This is what going to uni is about, (apart from the sex, drugs and partying!). It reminds me of the scene in Good Will Hunting. Matt Damon meets Robin Williams for the first time, and Williams asks him what books he likes, Damon's response: "Whatever blows your head off!".
So how about it people, what things have "blown your head off"?
So I'm reading this article for uni, and its blabbering on about nothing in particular, and then comes this statement, which basically takes my head off. I can think of nothing else but this. So I have to stop work, and just sit thinking about this idea.
Basically its that we think using the language we talk in. Your sitting there, talking to yourself in your head. Which means that our ability to think is constrained by our language. I know that this is a very simple way of putting it.
Anyway, I just thought this was really cool. And it regained my faith in learning. This is what going to uni is about, (apart from the sex, drugs and partying!). It reminds me of the scene in Good Will Hunting. Matt Damon meets Robin Williams for the first time, and Williams asks him what books he likes, Damon's response: "Whatever blows your head off!".
So how about it people, what things have "blown your head off"?
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Okay, for some people who may have already studied this I apologise, but its new to me and was a bit of a mind job.
So I'm reading this article for uni, and its blabbering on about nothing in particular, and then comes this statement, which basically takes my head off. I can think of nothing else but this. So I have to stop work, and just sit thinking about this idea.
Basically its that we think using the language we talk in. Your sitting there, talking to yourself in your head. Which means that our ability to think is constrained by our language. I know that this is a very simple way of putting it.
Anyway, I just thought this was really cool. And it regained my faith in learning. This is what going to uni is about, (apart from the sex, drugs and partying!). It reminds me of the scene in Good Will Hunting. Matt Damon meets Robin Williams for the first time, and Williams asks him what books he likes, Damon's response: "Whatever blows your head off!".
So how about it people, what things have "blown your head off"?
So I'm reading this article for uni, and its blabbering on about nothing in particular, and then comes this statement, which basically takes my head off. I can think of nothing else but this. So I have to stop work, and just sit thinking about this idea.
Basically its that we think using the language we talk in. Your sitting there, talking to yourself in your head. Which means that our ability to think is constrained by our language. I know that this is a very simple way of putting it.
Anyway, I just thought this was really cool. And it regained my faith in learning. This is what going to uni is about, (apart from the sex, drugs and partying!). It reminds me of the scene in Good Will Hunting. Matt Damon meets Robin Williams for the first time, and Williams asks him what books he likes, Damon's response: "Whatever blows your head off!".
So how about it people, what things have "blown your head off"?
What's blown my head off?
Well, I was at this party at uni, and someone decided to make a cocktail. Only they just got an empty plastic box, cleaned it out, and poured whatever alchohol they could find into it.
It was bloody disgusting, but it did the job!
Well, I was at this party at uni, and someone decided to make a cocktail. Only they just got an empty plastic box, cleaned it out, and poured whatever alchohol they could find into it.
It was bloody disgusting, but it did the job!
Your Honour wrote:
> What's blown my head off?
Well, I was at this party at uni, and someone
> decided to make a cocktail. Only they just got an empty plastic box, cleaned it
> out, and poured whatever alchohol they could find into it.
It was bloody
> disgusting, but it did the job!
Not quite what I had in mind YH, but I know what you mean!
> What's blown my head off?
Well, I was at this party at uni, and someone
> decided to make a cocktail. Only they just got an empty plastic box, cleaned it
> out, and poured whatever alchohol they could find into it.
It was bloody
> disgusting, but it did the job!
Not quite what I had in mind YH, but I know what you mean!
The GingerLord wrote:
Basically its that
> we think using the language we talk in. Your sitting there, talking to yourself
> in your head. Which means that our ability to think is constrained by our
> language. I know that this is a very simple way of putting it.
If that intreagued you, then you REALLY should read George Orwells 1984...
The limitation of expression and idea by control of the language is explored (via NewSpeak) as well as many other very interesteing and thought provoking ideas
(its also very short and easier to read and understand than the movies are :) )
Basically its that
> we think using the language we talk in. Your sitting there, talking to yourself
> in your head. Which means that our ability to think is constrained by our
> language. I know that this is a very simple way of putting it.
If that intreagued you, then you REALLY should read George Orwells 1984...
The limitation of expression and idea by control of the language is explored (via NewSpeak) as well as many other very interesteing and thought provoking ideas
(its also very short and easier to read and understand than the movies are :) )
Armatige Shanks wrote:
If that intreagued you, then you REALLY
> should read George Orwells 1984...
The limitation of expression and idea by
> control of the language is explored (via NewSpeak) as well as many other very
> interesteing and thought provoking ideas
(its also very short and easier to
> read and understand than the movies are :) )
That is a very good point. I keep meaning to read that book, but for some reason never got round to it. I'm sure its at home somewhere, gonna go have a look :)
If that intreagued you, then you REALLY
> should read George Orwells 1984...
The limitation of expression and idea by
> control of the language is explored (via NewSpeak) as well as many other very
> interesteing and thought provoking ideas
(its also very short and easier to
> read and understand than the movies are :) )
That is a very good point. I keep meaning to read that book, but for some reason never got round to it. I'm sure its at home somewhere, gonna go have a look :)
The GingerLord wrote:
That is a very
> good point. I keep meaning to read that book, but for some reason never got
> round to it. I'm sure its at home somewhere, gonna go have a look :)
Its well worth it man...
Although its kinda bleak, it really provides some quite profound insights and ideas... Raisinf a lot of interesting and important questions (mainly about yourself and your ideals)
That is a very
> good point. I keep meaning to read that book, but for some reason never got
> round to it. I'm sure its at home somewhere, gonna go have a look :)
Its well worth it man...
Although its kinda bleak, it really provides some quite profound insights and ideas... Raisinf a lot of interesting and important questions (mainly about yourself and your ideals)
Lots of things blow my mind. But in terms of langauage there are two.
1) I went to see Oliver Sachs (The Man who Mistook his Wife for Hat, Awakenings - turned into sentimental dross film) speak. He'd written a new book - of which I can't remember the title. Anyway it was kind of a human version of the Charles Darwin idea of how species develop and evolve. Sachs went to an Island in Micronesia which due to its geogrpahical isolation meant there was a serious amount of inbreeding. One of the off shoots of this was that 70% of the male population were colour blind. Not a little bit colour blind but saw entirely in monocrhome. The impact this had was two fold. 1) There were no metaphors to colour in their language e.g. seeing red if you are angry, feeling blue, grey day etc. The second which was even more interesting is that this wasn't viewed as a disability. As it affected so much of the population it was seen as the norm.
The second thing I saw was a programme about Nicaragua. Due to the Sandanista Government (funded by the CIA but thats another story) there were no provision for schools for deaf children. Consequently deaf people/children lived with their families. There was no evolved sign language as there is in the majority of the world, as the deaf people were isolated and only had a limited sign language they used with their families. Consequently all the sterotypes of deaf people being stupid etc were rampant.
So a change of government and schools for the deaf came into being. Within five years a sign language as sophisticated and evolved as all other spoken and sign langauges came about.
The film watched the students over a period of five years as they created and negoiated the language. There were furious rows as they argues about how to express things in sign. But through a process of negotiation it evolved.
I thought this programme was amazing for the above reasons but also because it looked at how language is constructed. How we agree what words mean. The impact of culture on language etc etc.
I thought both Oliver Sachs and the programme were great. All about humans strive to keep on communicating, how culture impacts on langauge and how perceptions of ability/disability are to a large extent socially constructed.
Blew my mind.
1) I went to see Oliver Sachs (The Man who Mistook his Wife for Hat, Awakenings - turned into sentimental dross film) speak. He'd written a new book - of which I can't remember the title. Anyway it was kind of a human version of the Charles Darwin idea of how species develop and evolve. Sachs went to an Island in Micronesia which due to its geogrpahical isolation meant there was a serious amount of inbreeding. One of the off shoots of this was that 70% of the male population were colour blind. Not a little bit colour blind but saw entirely in monocrhome. The impact this had was two fold. 1) There were no metaphors to colour in their language e.g. seeing red if you are angry, feeling blue, grey day etc. The second which was even more interesting is that this wasn't viewed as a disability. As it affected so much of the population it was seen as the norm.
The second thing I saw was a programme about Nicaragua. Due to the Sandanista Government (funded by the CIA but thats another story) there were no provision for schools for deaf children. Consequently deaf people/children lived with their families. There was no evolved sign language as there is in the majority of the world, as the deaf people were isolated and only had a limited sign language they used with their families. Consequently all the sterotypes of deaf people being stupid etc were rampant.
So a change of government and schools for the deaf came into being. Within five years a sign language as sophisticated and evolved as all other spoken and sign langauges came about.
The film watched the students over a period of five years as they created and negoiated the language. There were furious rows as they argues about how to express things in sign. But through a process of negotiation it evolved.
I thought this programme was amazing for the above reasons but also because it looked at how language is constructed. How we agree what words mean. The impact of culture on language etc etc.
I thought both Oliver Sachs and the programme were great. All about humans strive to keep on communicating, how culture impacts on langauge and how perceptions of ability/disability are to a large extent socially constructed.
Blew my mind.
If you're interested in this kind of thing, I strongly recommend a book called 'The Language Instinct' by S. Pinker. He is interested in evolutionalary biology (like Daniel C. Dennett, Richard Dawkins etc.) and in this book he explains how language could have been developed as it is so fantastically complex and the small changes that it required to evolve would not necessarily give us an adaptive advantage.
The book has loads of fascinating stuff on how the brain is structured, how we parse (interpret) speech and how we learn language (whether it is 'hard-wired' in our brains rather than aquired).
Another great head-spinner is Daniel C. Dennett's 'Consciousness Explained' book, all about how the brain works, how a series of electrical pulses may make us think and percieve our own identity. The weird bit is explaining how we have a stream of conscious thoughts. We do things all day without being conscious of them (we even drive while thinking about other things, the brain just takes care of it). So we are doing all these things but there is no centre of the brain, no little man deciding what we are conscious of, so how do these thousands of parralel processes converge into a single conscious stream when there is no central point or interpreter. Complex but freaky.
The book has loads of fascinating stuff on how the brain is structured, how we parse (interpret) speech and how we learn language (whether it is 'hard-wired' in our brains rather than aquired).
Another great head-spinner is Daniel C. Dennett's 'Consciousness Explained' book, all about how the brain works, how a series of electrical pulses may make us think and percieve our own identity. The weird bit is explaining how we have a stream of conscious thoughts. We do things all day without being conscious of them (we even drive while thinking about other things, the brain just takes care of it). So we are doing all these things but there is no centre of the brain, no little man deciding what we are conscious of, so how do these thousands of parralel processes converge into a single conscious stream when there is no central point or interpreter. Complex but freaky.
Cheers for the recommendations. I've got to stop shying away from the Popular Science section in Waterstones. I always hover near, have a quick read and then put them down.Time to take the intellectual bait and go for something a bit more taxing. Steven Pinker has been recommended before. Shall go to Waterstones and get my head messed with forwith.
Yeah, it makes you wonder how much of what we do is "hard-wired" in to us. Apparently nodding for "yes" is. People who have been blind from birth nod, and this is thought to be hard-wired in from birth. They shake their head for no too, but this is thought to come from early childhood. The child shakes their head to say "no" to more food, preventing the parent from giving them anymore.
Thanks for the book recommendations, i'll check them out, (if I ever get through all the required reading for my course!)
Thanks for the book recommendations, i'll check them out, (if I ever get through all the required reading for my course!)
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