Conscious life

what is language?

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what is language? why does language can't convey truth? 

I found this awesome statement about the limitations of language? 

1. is orange a fruit or a colour? 

all are our inquiry and questions about nature of reality is the same as the above questions? 

 

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quote-the-more-i-think-about-language-th

I-am-not-strange.-I-am-just-not-normal.-

Above anything it allows us to make distinctions. In a variety of ways at that 

I don't wanna get too abstract but that I think is the fundamental reason for why we can't live without language

Edited by Megan Alecia

"We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream. This is true for the entire universe."

-- The Upanishads

Encyclopedia

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Imagine that there was a painting right in front of you and that you've been tasked with describing said painting to another person. Do you think that your description of this painting could ever come close to the actual experience of seeing it with your own eyes? Could you ever perfectly describe each individual stroke? Each color? Each emotion?

Words are like boxes. You take a piece of reality and you put it in a box. This is supposed to make communicating reality easier, but these words hijack the way we think. We start to think in words. We start think inside the box We label stuff and dismiss the nuance behind it. We look at tree and think "That's a tree!", but we just put that tree into a box with all the other trees. But each tree is unique. No two trees look exactly the same. They might be similar, but they aren't the same.

Apply that same logic to everything else. Try to see what's within the box of language. Look at a closet and try to see how it's different from another closet. Look at a carpet and try to see how it's different from another carpet. What you will realize is that reality can't be put into a box.


beep boop

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2 hours ago, Conscious life said:

what is language? why does language can't convey truth? 

I found this awesome statement about the limitations of language? 

1. is orange a fruit or a colour? 

all are our inquiry and questions about nature of reality is the same as the above questions? 

 

Just like what head is to tail, language is to the unfathomable reality. You cannot describe tail without talking about head. Similarly, you cannot explain reality using language alone. To get the point of head and tail, you'll need to understand that head and tail are two faces of the same coin and when talking about one face of the coin, the other side is hidden. In a similarly way, language is one part of reality and when using language to describe reality, you forget what's hidden. 

Edited by VincentArogya

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3 hours ago, Conscious life said:

what is language?

You are using language to ask a question. How can you use something without knowing what it is? 

3 hours ago, Conscious life said:

why does language can't convey truth?

convey - (verb) transport or carry to a place.

Language can only transport and carry you to a place but it can't tell you what the place is. 

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20 minutes ago, JosephKnecht said:

You are using language to ask a question. How can you use something without knowing what it is? 

You are living. How can you live without knowing what life is?

You are eating an orange. How can you eat an orange without knowing what an orange is?

You are typing. How can you type without knowing what hands are?

Edited by MrWolf

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Quote

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

—Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations)

Quote

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

— Ludwig Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus)

Quote

Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.

 — Ludwig Wittgenstein (Journal entry, 14 May 1915)

 

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6 hours ago, Conscious life said:

why cannot language convey truth?

Simply because truth is a larger infinity than language. The larger infinity contains the smaller ones. The smaller ones are a fraction of the larger one.


If you have no confidence in yourself, you are twice defeated in the race of life. But with confidence you have won, even before you start.” -- Marcus Garvey

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sounds we culturally agree carry certain meanings that we create in our minds.

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12 hours ago, MrWolf said:

You are living. How can you live without knowing what life is?

You are eating an orange. How can you eat an orange without knowing what an orange is?

You are typing. How can you type without knowing what hands are?

To know life, you must live life. 

To know an orange, you must eat an orange. 

But how can you use language, to ask what language is? How can I use language to tell you what language is?

Some things must be contemplated for oneself.

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Language is the way of communication. We are not human beings without language. And is it quite important (at least for me) to learn new information every day, including new languages? I know, some people say an adult can't learn a language, but if you spend thirty minutes a day doing exercises - you'll be successful in any sphere. Here is a great article on that topic.

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On 02/12/2020 at 3:55 PM, Conscious life said:

why does language can't convey truth? 

Language is nothing without context. Context can be truth.

"Orange" is just sounds or letters, only context makes it either a colour or a fruit. You don't see orange or taste orange with language.


All stories and explanations are false.

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