--- Chris Vlaar <elkeaapheefteen@hotmail.com> wrote:
> it's hard to understand other people, this has been
> one of the major
> problems in my childhood(I'm saying this at age 22,
> still a child). Why is
> it that people don't seem to understand me and why
> can't I understand other
> people? Like (early)Wittgenstein and others like
> Bohr I thought we were
> captured in our language, a lingiustical cocoon. But
> it's not really the
> language that is the problem, it's the different
> perspectives we all have,
> we can't synchronize our ideas,
People often jump out and try to pin the blame of
understanding on language. But I agree the real issue
is the difference in individual experience. The main
issue with language is not that it's impresice
(spelling?) or can't describe things, I think the main
issue is that a common language can give a false
impression of understanding. For instance, if I
write a 10,000 word essay describing what "love" means
to me I can hopefully give you some sense of what me
feelings are. However if I say to you the simple
sentence "I am in love" You'll nod and smile and
congratulate me and I'll falsely assume that you have
understood the feelings I'm feeling. This is the main
problem, language lets me simplify descriptions down
to approximate phrases that we have as a culture
agreed meanings for but we need to be careful to not
rely too heavily on the agreed meanings being
consistent.
Alternately we could all sit down and thoroughly
memorise the oxford english dictionary and then we'd
have quite a few less communication issues...
Cheers
Dave
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