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 Kevii
Tadpole
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 On the origins of Language - Rousseau 
#6726274 - 03/29/07 09:13 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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Two quotes by Rousseau
"For if men needed speech in order to learn to think, they had a still greater need for knowing how to think in order to discover the art of speaking” (Rousseau, 49).
"The vocal articulations of things must be arrived at by “unanimous consent” but language is needed to voice consent, thus “speech appears to have been necessary to establish the use of speech” (Rousseau, 50).
Green is green? Why not Blue? Red? Purple?
God is god? What is God? Is the word God the only means of contructing the abstract thought of God?
"Without language, man cannot conceive the general idea of a tree, he can only picture a particular tree, with a certain height, color, etc. Abstract or complex ideas, then, only transpire when man gives names to them."
Full Article : http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/originofinequality/essay1.html
I wish i had the e-book =|
What do you think?
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 demiu5
humans, lol
Registered: 08/18/05
Posts: 43,948
Loc: the popcorn stadium 
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Re: On the origins of Language - Rousseau [Re: Kevii]
#6726337 - 03/29/07 09:30 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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Quote:
What do you think?
I think it's funny that so much is focused on man's speech, yet almost every animal communicates vocally, or at least express vocally, as well as insects communicate in all sorts of other ways such as sound or smells
If all these creatures could "arrive at 'unanimous consent'", then our ability to do so/end product is no more special than theirs
--------------------
channel your inner Larry David
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vigilant_mind
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Re: On the origins of Language - Rousseau [Re: Kevii]
#6726366 - 03/29/07 09:35 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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We as humans communicate largely nonverbally. People don't realize this, but we do. In fact, about 90% of communication is based on perception.
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Kevii
Tadpole
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Re: On the origins of Language - Rousseau [Re: vigilant_mind]
#6726466 - 03/29/07 10:01 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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Like when you wave at someone, it means hello? How do you know it means hello though. When was this established? When was sign language established? Sign languages must have been established AFTER language correct? So it also means animals have a language of their own right? They must have a ways of communication.
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vigilant_mind
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Re: On the origins of Language - Rousseau [Re: Kevii]
#6726477 - 03/29/07 10:03 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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I find this to be common sense: we evolved from nonspeaking organisms. Thus, nonverbal communication came first.
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Kevii
Tadpole
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Re: On the origins of Language - Rousseau [Re: vigilant_mind]
#6726494 - 03/29/07 10:06 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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Bah we evolved? A whole different discussion. I suppose though if you put it that way .. whatever. lol
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vigilant_mind
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Re: On the origins of Language - Rousseau [Re: Kevii]
#6726503 - 03/29/07 10:07 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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What else would you suppose? And I'm not going to argue evolution vs. creationism with you; I'm willing to delineate with whatever viewpoint it is that you adhere to.
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Kevii
Tadpole
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Re: On the origins of Language - Rousseau [Re: vigilant_mind]
#6726652 - 03/29/07 10:59 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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Well i guess we can all figure that there is a "God" so to say before everything right? So does it mean that this "God" had already established language way before we could? I wouldnt want to argue evolution vs creationism i feel that we all need to be open to both ideas. If we simply were created, when did we acknowledge language? Did "God" give it to us and give us language or did we create language ourselves. Because you cannot prove that an apple is red, nor that it is an apple. Its meaning is derived from the word. And the word is derived from....?
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vigilant_mind
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Re: On the origins of Language - Rousseau [Re: Kevii]
#6726711 - 03/29/07 11:13 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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Words are symbols of intuitions or ideas. So, when we communicate verbally we are expressing an already present symbol within our minds. You and I (insofar as you're not colorblind) would both see an apple as red, yet verbally saying that the apple is red merely associating a sound to an immaterial intuition. Verbal (and written) language is an added expedition to the communication that is innate within all of us; it is not the cornerstone to all communication.
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Kevii
Tadpole
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Posts: 78
Loc: California
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Re: On the origins of Language - Rousseau [Re: vigilant_mind]
#6726810 - 03/29/07 11:52 PM (17 years, 22 days ago) |
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Ah, That makes alot of sense. So how do we establish that distinct sound to the symbol in our minds? Say a group of people are sitting in a circle with an apple in the middle of the circle. How is it all these men agree to print the sound "apple" upon the object? Now they would all have to agree on that, how did they agree that to make the sound "apple" means that symbol. Ask a blind man to imagine an apple, he understands the concept and idea because of language. But he has never seen one, he can feel, touch, smell, know that it is red, but can he picture exactly what it looks like without having seen it already? In a sense, he cannot. So to him, language is the foundation of his reality correct? He constructs the reality of an apple, of a cup of coffee, from the language we use. The descriptive words we have conceived and so on. If this makes enough sense to you, when do you think we all understood each other well enough to create "Language"
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