From: Matt the Enraged Endorphin (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Tue Oct 08 2002 - 02:32:36 BST
Erin,
MATT: "Actually, now that I think about it, reality is prior to language."
SQUONK: "Experience is prior to language."
ERIN: "Aren't sounds part of experience? Wouldn't it be that experience
is prior analysis of these sounds? Language include the sounds and the
analysis of the sounds."
MATT:
A pragmatist would respond that, once we get rid of the notion of language
as a medium of representation or expression, we can view language as a tool
to cope with reality. So, noises that you don't understand might not count
as a language, but the question is, "How does this help you cope with
reality?" How does an untranslated language help you cope with your
environment?
You see, the conception of experience I'm working with is just that:
experience, period. No "prior" to anything. Experience is the manifold of
sensations that bombard us every second of every day. Everything is an
experience, including the hearing of noises that constitute a spoken
language. Taking a holistic, Gestalt stance, experience also includes
so-called tertiary experiences, so that we directly experience "complex
experiences" like snow (which Lockeans would reduce into secondary and
primary properties). So, the question is, what's more helpful, you
understanding my saying, "I'm going to punch you in the face" or you not
understanding it? Put this way, I almost guarantee that its more helpful
to understand it (even if you are a masochist).
Matt
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 10:37:55 GMT