Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, 1863-1944
I must agree with this quote, as I believe that language can, at times, be a barrier for learning. Language is very easily misunderstood which therefore causes issues. When people are speaking a certain language and can understand each other of course it is a great was to accumulate knowledge, however, there are many problems with gaining knowledge through the language. As we know, not everyone all over the world speaks the same language which means that we cannot all understand what each other are saying. When this occurs, people can try to interpret what the other is saying and confuse their words and then pass on false knowledge. This continues to get passed on and therefore people are not gaining any true justified knowledge, even though they may believe it is true. When groups cannot understand one another because of a language barrier, their whole groups become confused and their characters can change because of this "knowledge" they accumulated. Also, when people talk and act like they have knowledge it can get in the way of people observing nature, and everything around them, and people stop learning things naturally, rather they simply wait for someone to teach them new "knowledge". Language can also cause many other problems and therefore is a barrier to learning true knowledge at times, however that it not to say that it is not sometimes a great way to accumulate knowledge. All things considered, I would certainly have to agree with Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.
Who knew there were so many languages in the world??
I like how you talk about how people wait for them to teach them knowledge instead of looking around/observing and trying to learn some things themselves. that's a really interesting point.
ReplyDeleteYou mention two very valid limitations of the development of our knowledge through language. Translatability, as I was just mentioning in class, can be a problem. This might even be more of a problem when there is a poor or imperfect translation than no translation at all.
ReplyDeleteThe other problem - that of authority - is an interesting one in a society that has access to as many media as we do. Do you think that media like books, TV and the internet help you gain knowledge or interfere with it?