Can we convey our experiences by way of language?
Before saying 'yes' we have to pause. For language itself should not be regarded
as unproblematically revealing the world, or our world. I am not being a controversialist.
It is not the existence of reality that is denied here, but it is the claim that we can make direct contact with reality through language...this idea that there is an external world which can be located by language and the reality butterfly is caught and pinned to the table by our language is rather wishful thinking. So we have got it through language and we do not even think of mediation, for all doubt is extinguished.
Let us turn to science in contemporary and mostly in the history of science all hypotheses are provisional. capable of being amended in the light of new evidence. If the scientific hypothesis was
taken to be certain it would enter into the realm of dogma, something commonly found in religions.
Such thinkers are language fundamentalists endeavouring to fix and exact and unchanging meaning to every word. This approach, in the view of many, is a profound misunderstanding of what language
is, what it can be, and what it can't be.
Before saying 'yes' we have to pause. For language itself should not be regarded
as unproblematically revealing the world, or our world. I am not being a controversialist.
It is not the existence of reality that is denied here, but it is the claim that we can make direct contact with reality through language...this idea that there is an external world which can be located by language and the reality butterfly is caught and pinned to the table by our language is rather wishful thinking. So we have got it through language and we do not even think of mediation, for all doubt is extinguished.
Let us turn to science in contemporary and mostly in the history of science all hypotheses are provisional. capable of being amended in the light of new evidence. If the scientific hypothesis was
taken to be certain it would enter into the realm of dogma, something commonly found in religions.
Such thinkers are language fundamentalists endeavouring to fix and exact and unchanging meaning to every word. This approach, in the view of many, is a profound misunderstanding of what language
is, what it can be, and what it can't be.
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