From: Patrick van den Berg (cirandar@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Nov 20 2002 - 19:32:47 GMT
Hi Matt,
> The
> "linguistic turn" that many contemporary philosophers have taken is
> the
> turn away from talking about mind to talking about language. Mind is
> a
> non-entity now (for these philosophers). Part of this turn is that,
> strip
> away language and you aren't left with mind, you're left with nothing.
> We
> can conceive of pre-langauge animals and babies, and that they are
> aware,
> but we can't conceive of ourselves being aware without having
> language.
I have encountered the perspective you describe here, too, but only
second-handly (through reading about it by you for instance!). Although
I recall Dan Dennet saying that once we get lions to talk to us about
what they experience, we are not talking to lions anymore, because the
nature of their awareness has changed so much through the influence of
language.
So according to philosophers which have taken the linguistic turn, I am
not aware of my play when I play the piano, I'm not aware when I feel
the breeze and watch the trees wave in the wind, I'm not aware when I'm
doing geometry. So THIS is the switch to turn 'me' 'off' temporarily !
(since some people here would like such as switch!): just let me absorb
myself in piano-playing, and block any words out of my mind. Okay,
that's good, from tonight on I will play piano the whole night through,
although I doubt whether my neighbours would like that, but I am not
aware and 'off' so I don't care.
But serious, if what you describe is an accurate description of what
some contemporary philosophers believe, I really don't understand them.
(In a similar vain, I wonder who REALLY believed in 'strong' behaviorism
with its claim that mind doesn't exist because we can't observe or
measure it).
Friendly greetings, Patrick.
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