Postby Le Baron » Sun Feb 25, 2024 2:01 am
I don't really agree with how he interpreted the Wittgenstein quote. Though many others also interpret it that way and often talk about things like languages with words for a colour that doesn't exist in other languages. I think it refers to the limits of language in general. What language can convey and what it possibly can't, since that is the overarching theme of the book the quote comes from.
I'm sceptical of the idea that knowing other languages somehow makes you think broader, more improved thoughts, or fills gaps, or improves the ability to communicate things that often fail to effectively be put into language.
I wouldn't be here if I thought knowing more languages wasn't useful and a way of seeing other perspectives, but I can't really accept the view that being a monoglot handicaps the ability to think in the way suggested. I don't believe thoughts are words anyway. They only become words. I'm even sceptical of the notion of 'thinking in different languages'. The language is the output for communication's sake, not the source of the thoughts.
Also Arguelles is like Woody Allen in that video!
4 x
Pedantry is properly the over-rating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.
- Jonathan Swift
