do you think that your lexicon can shape your philosophy/worldview?
I was looking through the songs on a Sly and the Family stone cd, and they have a song called "I can not make it". while I know that can't stands for can not... it still takes a certain mindset to think that inability is an action.... does that make sense?
"I can not do that" and "I can't do that" have such a huge difference IMO.
now, sure there are things that you can't do, like fit a camel through the eye of a needle (ha). butsaying that you can't do something seems to imply that you have no choice in the matter when in fact, most of the time, you are merely choosing an act of omission. for example: "i can't focus on my schoolwork" really? you are completely unable to? be it a conscious or subconscious choice (even though I loathe the concept of subconscious) it is still an act of omission rather than a statement of inability.
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Interesting post -
As it seems to me, the difference between "can't" and "can not" is a purely emphasis driven phenomenon. Experientially, "can not" just seems to be more powerful.
In any case, as everyone has some sort of self-image, "self-handicapping" as it is termed in social psychology is quite a common practice where people will purposefully avoid what they are supposed to be doing in order to justify a possible failure. For example, John believes he is smart. If "John" has a chem test coming up and is worried he might not have the intellectual capacity to pass it (this would not match up with his self-image), he might play video games all night instead of studying the night before the exam. When he fails, he can then justify to himself that he failed because of the video games - not because he did not have the intellectual capacity to pass the exam.
This phenomenon would align with your "can't" category in that we assume that we "can't" do things which don't align with our self-image. Interestingly, the best remedy for this is not to practice believing that you CAN do something, but to actually go out and do it. Behavior typically is the best avenue to affecting your cognitions and feelings about yourself and other things.
Generally, it seems that one's lexicon does influence one's disposition; however, prying this conceptually from brain chemistry, behavior, environment, etc. would be difficult at best. Anecdotally, mantras do seem to indicate that a slogan designed to change one's disposition could possibly be effective. However, I am relatively unfamiliar with the consequences of mantra. Somewhat tangentially, it is important to note that language itself has important import into how one views the world. Unfortunately, I only speak one language so you'd have to get clarification on this elsewhere.
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"plus they atually think jambands are good or sumthing, so they clearly know absolutely nothing about music, clearly lol" -Bassfreak
Edited by All We Perceive (02/07/08 02:27 AM)
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