Atheistforums.com

Humanities Section => Philosophy & Rhetoric General Discussion => Topic started by: Baruch on April 12, 2019, 12:31:07 PM

Title: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Baruch on April 12, 2019, 12:31:07 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6eXw0AAKZ8

Time is talked about, and therefore thought about, differently depending on your language family.  Not only Aymara in the Andes, but Biblical Hebrew, also "face" the past and "back" the future.  Also in Biblical Hebrew, your primary compass point isn't North, but East.  So "right hand" equals South and "left hand" equals North.  As the Sun moves across the sky you can see how in facing sunrise, Biblical Hebrew faces the past, and with your back to the sunset, the opposite regarding the future.
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: SoldierofFortune on April 16, 2019, 11:25:46 PM
In the arab language the word used for umbrella is "shemsiyye"
-iyye is a suffix which means "ness" as in the word whatness, and shems means sun.

That is, arabs see the same tool as "protector from the sun" and latins see "a tool that gives you shadow, shade"

You know umbra means shadow.
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Baruch on April 16, 2019, 11:37:35 PM
Quote from: SoldierofFortune on April 16, 2019, 11:25:46 PM
In the arab language the word used for umbrella is "shemsiyye"
-iyye is a suffix which means "ness" as in the word whatness, and shems means sun.

That is, arabs see the same tool as "protector from the sun" and latins see "a tool that gives you shadow, shade"

You know umbra means shadow.

in the Middle East and India, the umbrella was only available for royalty.  Including Jewish Kings (I have a coin of Herod Agrippa with it).
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Hydra009 on April 17, 2019, 12:04:18 AM
“The menu is not the meal.”
― Alan Watts
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: SoldierofFortune on April 17, 2019, 12:49:59 AM
Quote from: Hydra009 on April 17, 2019, 12:04:18 AM
“The menu is not the meal.”
― Alan Watts

I dont understand what watts means by this sentence. Maybe because of lack of context. Can you please explain or paraphare it?
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: drunkenshoe on April 17, 2019, 03:11:11 AM
Language doesn't just influence, it shapes how we think. No, it is not linguistic determinism. It's a constantly changing process. Think about how people talked/wrote in social media before 9/11. Before 2007? Before 2016? Now?

Thre are tons of new words, concepts, phrases invented in the last few years which people act as if they existed forever and define their society. Take the word Incel. How old is it? Who are these people? 

Why do you think Trump talks like a 19 year old, high school drop out, gang leader wanna be? Who listens to him? Who votes for him?

Does he make any sense to an American with an active vocabulary over 50 000 words? In the US that is. That would change for an English user in another country.   
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Baruch on April 17, 2019, 09:09:31 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_CFGVPO7SY

Americans are gangsters.  Wanna mess with us?  Bring it on!

Yes, President Obama was well spoken.  I liked that about him.  But he still killed a lot of brown folk, and Ukrainians.
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Cavebear on April 18, 2019, 09:06:10 AM
I scored 83%.  But I know I clicked on a word I knew as a nonword.  Finger twitches count I suppose. 
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Cavebear on April 18, 2019, 09:12:46 AM
Quote from: SoldierofFortune on April 17, 2019, 12:49:59 AM
I dont understand what watts means by this sentence. Maybe because of lack of context. Can you please explain or paraphare it?

The map is not the territory.  The image isn't the thing itself.  A picture of a can of soup is not actually a can of soup.  The idea is the realization that an image of something is not the actual object.

Hope this helped.
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Baruch on April 18, 2019, 11:02:10 AM
Quote from: Cavebear on April 18, 2019, 09:12:46 AM
The map is not the territory.  The image isn't the thing itself.  A picture of a can of soup is not actually a can of soup.  The idea is the realization that an image of something is not the actual object.

Hope this helped.

Absolutely correct.  Now apply that to any politic ideology you adhere to.
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Cavebear on April 18, 2019, 12:40:00 PM
Quote from: Baruch on April 18, 2019, 11:02:10 AM
Absolutely correct.  Now apply that to any politic ideology you adhere to.

Well, I'm more into (sadly) "stupid vs not so stupid" rather than left/right, conservative/liberal, Repub/Dem.  I want someone who thinks like a mayor (fix the potholes and plow the streets), understands that times change (and time moves forward), can stand up to bullies (cat whappy-paws), and knows that power comes from group cooperation not missiles. 

Don't know whether that will be a Dem or Repub in 2020 yet, but it SURE isn't gonna be Trump!
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Baruch on April 18, 2019, 02:58:02 PM
Quote from: Cavebear on April 18, 2019, 12:40:00 PM
Well, I'm more into (sadly) "stupid vs not so stupid" rather than left/right, conservative/liberal, Repub/Dem.  I want someone who thinks like a mayor (fix the potholes and plow the streets), understands that times change (and time moves forward), can stand up to bullies (cat whappy-paws), and knows that power comes from group cooperation not missiles. 

Don't know whether that will be a Dem or Repub in 2020 yet, but it SURE isn't gonna be Trump!

I don't plan on voting for Trump either.  So far no one other than Tulsi Gabbard looks good in the D-clown-car.
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Cavebear on April 18, 2019, 05:02:25 PM
Quote from: Baruch on April 18, 2019, 02:58:02 PM
I don't plan on voting for Trump either.  So far no one other than Tulsi Gabbard looks good in the D-clown-car.

So you don't intend to vote?  J/K

Joe, Joe, Joe...
Title: Re: Language can influence how we think ...
Post by: Baruch on April 18, 2019, 05:07:52 PM
Quote from: Cavebear on April 18, 2019, 05:02:25 PM
So you don't intend to vote?  J/K

Joe, Joe, Joe...

See, you interpret.  I want to be on a winning team.  Can't decide between Czar Putin or Emperor Xi ;-)