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Wittgenstein pointed out (or so I read) that "I think therefore I am" presupposes what it pretends to prove. There is no private language. If I have an unspecified feeling that I label "s", "s" doesn't mean anything unless someone else knows what I mean by it. Even I can never be sure that I always mean the same thing by "s". Therefore, Descartes' statement rests on what it pretends to prove - sentience. It assumes another mind that can understands his own mind through the words he uses.
gerontodon 2 years ago
So I think you're right, the word can't have come before sentience unless the word "word" could refer to some kind of knowledge of subject-object dualistic relationships. You must know all about AUM, the fundamental sound, according to some. I don't know if that could be translated as "word" or not.
Sorry to go off on a tangent, but did you ever know Alan Watts?
gerontodon 2 years ago
Chomsky made the point that although langauge imposes limitations, it also provides the structure that allows us to perceive.
Our eyes limit us from seeing infra-red, but only because they allow use to see the colours of the rainbow.
emphaticapathy 3 years ago
thanks , for the reminder
atree3 3 years ago
You are a musician...so there was always and first - the sound...the words came much much later... and not just for you - I can't imagine that words came before rythym, natural or human made...
CityzenJane 4 years ago
Interesting thought; that the way language limits our ability to experience all of existence is deliberate. We use language because we need limits? We're afraid of what might happen if we could all see through mountains? Perhaps.
kenrg 4 years ago
i think this discussion is operating on the wrong level of abstraction. whether it's word, symbol or perception it's all different forms of information. problems (like in quantum mechanics) start to develope when we "zoom" in to the level where subject and object starts to overlap. that's spacewise. timewise it's the dillema of the beginning you cared to mention.
just repeating myself for your benefit :)
jogayot 4 years ago