"language makes us beings capable of understanding"
another article, another author, same source (Zeit Magazin Leben, no.52, 19dec07).
Peter Bieri is teaching philosophy at FU Berlin. he writes (and i translate freely):
* "language makes us beings capable of understanding. in a state of non-understanding, when we do not know words or sentences, we cannot identify the causal relationships of the world and are being pushed around at random. the learning of language fundamentally changes this: because we can react to the world with a system of symbols, we can understand it, we have a notion of it.
language provides us with a conceptual organization of experiencees. [...] it helps us to classify what we experience."
* "language is also quintessential for the understanding of the other. first of all your own language, in which we justify what we do, but then also the language of the other, through which we are approved or corrected. language is an expression of the strange other as well as a bridge to a foreign mind."
* "every action is an episode in someone's life and draws its sense and rationality from his/her history."
* "verbal articulation can form emotional certainty out of emotional chaos and something conscious out of the unconscious. memory, too, is shaped by language. of course, beings uncapable of language also have memory. [... but] the process of recollection forms the identity of one's mind."
* "there is a positive power of language. and there is a negative one. [...] when words coagulate to empty verbal shells and sentences become slogans they are no longer part of the logical framework of reasoning, criticism and revision but exhibit the [...] grim determination of fists pounding a table. [...] also the false language of diplomacy with its euphemisms and [...] gentle lies [...] aims is to suffocate critical inquiry and the need for better understanding. this kind of language aims to paralyze the spirit.
besides slogans there are other forms of language that prohibit understanding and education: empty phrases and something which one may call verbal rubble [...]. the usage of "verbal garbage" degrades conversation to ranting, blabbering and quacking. this kind of language does not encourage people to be alert and to strive for self-determination through adequate verbal articulation."
Peter Bieri is teaching philosophy at FU Berlin. he writes (and i translate freely):
* "language makes us beings capable of understanding. in a state of non-understanding, when we do not know words or sentences, we cannot identify the causal relationships of the world and are being pushed around at random. the learning of language fundamentally changes this: because we can react to the world with a system of symbols, we can understand it, we have a notion of it.
language provides us with a conceptual organization of experiencees. [...] it helps us to classify what we experience."
* "language is also quintessential for the understanding of the other. first of all your own language, in which we justify what we do, but then also the language of the other, through which we are approved or corrected. language is an expression of the strange other as well as a bridge to a foreign mind."
* "every action is an episode in someone's life and draws its sense and rationality from his/her history."
* "verbal articulation can form emotional certainty out of emotional chaos and something conscious out of the unconscious. memory, too, is shaped by language. of course, beings uncapable of language also have memory. [... but] the process of recollection forms the identity of one's mind."
* "there is a positive power of language. and there is a negative one. [...] when words coagulate to empty verbal shells and sentences become slogans they are no longer part of the logical framework of reasoning, criticism and revision but exhibit the [...] grim determination of fists pounding a table. [...] also the false language of diplomacy with its euphemisms and [...] gentle lies [...] aims is to suffocate critical inquiry and the need for better understanding. this kind of language aims to paralyze the spirit.
besides slogans there are other forms of language that prohibit understanding and education: empty phrases and something which one may call verbal rubble [...]. the usage of "verbal garbage" degrades conversation to ranting, blabbering and quacking. this kind of language does not encourage people to be alert and to strive for self-determination through adequate verbal articulation."
morino - 25. Dec, 22:45
