| From: | David Buehrer <dbuehrer@******.CARL.ORG> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: [OT] Nuances of Language |
| Date: | Thu, 7 May 1998 09:33:41 -0600 |
/
/ David Buehrer wrote:
/ >
/ >But isn't language used to symbolically represent a world that's
/ >perceived abstractly?
/
/ Perceived abstractly? I don't quite follow...
Sorry :) I was remembering my highschool days when we discovered
metaphysics and had long debates about nothing, and subsequently
wrote a sentance that bordered on being metaphysical.
However, I will try to explain.
I can look out the window and see a parking lot that has automobils
parked in it. Most of the autos are cars, with an SUV and a couple
of minivans. There're a wide variety of cars: two door, four door,
sport, sedan, etc. There're also a wide variaty of manufactures:
Saturn, Ford, VW, Honda, Chevy, Toyota, etc (the Fords seem to be in
the majority).
When using a word such as auto, it's easy to see that it symbolically
describes an abstract idea. There really is no such thing as an
auto per se, and yet there is in the eye of the beholder.
The word car also symbolizes and abstract perception. A VW Fox GL
can be percieved as a car. A Ford Probe can be percieved as a car.
You'd think that when you get down to the level of Ford Probe that
you are no longer percieving abstractly. But you are. Think about
everything that that perception represents (depending on who you
are): sports car, fast, agile, two seater, babe magnet, middle aged
pacifier, etc.
It's not possible to not percieve something abstractly.
On a biological level your eye first interprets the light that is
reflected off of objects. Your brain then interprets this
interpretation. You then assign values to the interpretation. Is a
Ford Probe first and foremost a sports car? Or do you view it as a
babe magnet? Or is it something that middle aged men by to reclaim
their lost youth? Or is it just a car? Or is it a conglomeration of
seperate machines engineered to combine their functions to produce an
end result?
Whether you're reading or listening, you're interpreting abstract
symbols to interpret someone else's abstract perception of the
world. And when you communicate with someone you are attempting to
share your abstract perception of the world with that person by using
abstract symbols to define those perceptions.
It's a wonder we can communicate at all :)
/ >Are we having fun yet :)
/
/ Eh. What choice do we have?
<chuckle>
-David
--
"Truth, like a torch, the more it's shook it shines."
- Sir William Hamilton
--
email: dbuehrer@******.carl.org
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm
