Hey Erin, Patrick, and Sam,
I haven't found that post yet (although I haven't had much time to
look), but the fact that Patrick has come across this 'accusation' through
an independent source leads me to believe that you could probably find
material on the 'hoax' elsewhere.
ERIN (from an E-Prime article):
The Sapir-Whorf-Korzybski Hypothesis, in anthropology, holds that a change
in language can alter our perception of the cosmos.
RICK:
Maybe.... I thought maybe it would be more worthwhile to demur to Whorf for
now and examine the context in which Pirsig uses his 'research':
PIRSIG (quotes from LILA p382-383)
"...Categories that are unessential to a given culture...will, on the whole,
not be found in its language. Categories that are culturally important will
be found in detail..."
RICK:
Note that Pirsig will cite the eskimos as evidence for this proposition from
Boas.
PIRSIG:
"...Eskimos see sixteen different forms of snow and ice which are as
different to them as trees and shrubs are different to us. Hindus, on the
other hand, use the same term for both ice and snow..."
RICK:
Of course... there aren't 16 different KINDS of snow and ice where Hindu's
live.
PIRSIG:
"Edward Sapir said, 'The fact of the matter is that the 'real world' is to a
large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the groups."
RICK:
On the contrary...The only thing that the eskimo's vocabulary proves (if
anything) is that it's snowier in Alaska than in India. Saying that the
eskimo's describe snow in such detail because it is 'culturally important'
and that Hindu's don't because it is 'unessential to their culture' is a bit
misleading don't you think? If they both lived in the same place and had
those big vocabulary differences, then it might indicate something about
'culture'... but in this case, it only reflects differences in their
environment....
....don't you think???
rick
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