What exactly is language? What does it do? Is the intention of language to 'get the world right'? Or is that an exaggerated demand on language?
While some would consider language and thought as 'capturing' the reality. I would look at it as a means of viewing reality. Just like a lens or glass in a pair of specs. Human as we are, we cannot understand the whole of reality in one gulp. We take in bits and pieces. Those bits and pieces are then stitched together in our mind. But we also need to acknowledge that the means of taking in these bits and pieces is not always perfect. It can never be. And that's the beauty of it.
Why is there such a pressure to be always right about everything? And like Aristotle said, no one is bad as such, even the evil that one intends to carry out is chosen for the good seen in it. No one chooses evil for itself! So too no one chooses to be wrong about a particular conception. Even if one does it is because it helps in the overall view of building a weltanschauung.
Language has the capacity to enamour, bewitch, help us 'see' things in totally startling creative ways. One cannot really have a perfect language. Even if we did, it would be as dead as it can be. It will never be able to convey anything new, different, creative.
Why is there such a pressure to be always right about everything? And like Aristotle said, no one is bad as such, even the evil that one intends to carry out is chosen for the good seen in it. No one chooses evil for itself! So too no one chooses to be wrong about a particular conception. Even if one does it is because it helps in the overall view of building a weltanschauung.
Language has the capacity to enamour, bewitch, help us 'see' things in totally startling creative ways. One cannot really have a perfect language. Even if we did, it would be as dead as it can be. It will never be able to convey anything new, different, creative.
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