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22 September 2018

Capacity for language as innate

Just mailed my second article to my supervisor.  Humboldt, Language and the Self.  Started out with something in mind, and ended up with something totally different.  Not sure if I can call it convergence or divergence!  I leave it to my supervisor to decide.  However, the exercise of putting it all together was interesting.  But I do acknowledge I lack the cutting edge or the finesse of writing a philosophy paper.  It reads more like a reflection on life rather than an abstract theorization.  Well, can't complain too much about it, for I prefer the former to the latter! 

Anyway, one of the elements in the paper that I gather and speak about is granting the capacity of the human being to create language an innate value.  Reasoning or thought is already considered innate to human nature.  In fact, it is one of human being's defining elements.  Humboldt's view that language and thought are intertwined, right at the origins, makes it possible to grant innate status to language as well.  I wish I had elaborated this dimension - occurred to me at 2 in the morning! 

However it is not a particular language that a person has innate ability for, rather it is the capacity to language that is innate.  So if language - or capacity for it - is part of human nature, belongs to the essence of being human, what would be the implications?
Not very many, given that language is being treated on par with thought? (too tired to exert the mind anymore!)

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