Prejudices

[davemarc]

At 04:29 PM 11/25/96 -0600, Jean wrote:
>     
>Granted my grasp of pomo discourse and theory is puny, if not non-existent,
but 
>Dave, are you saying that language is ACTUALLY synonomous with the
expression of
>ideas?  That the idea is language and vice-versa?  And someone who speaks Hopi 
>would be trapped in an IDEA set that cannot be escaped from because the words 
>exist or do not exist within this language?  I can understand that concepts
may 
>be expressed with differing degrees of subtlety from one culture to the next - 
>for example, there's a japanese word which means (roughly) the disjointed and 
>mixed feelings of sadness and fondness and happiness that one feels when 
>confronted with a smell or sound or look from one's past.  The fact that
there's
>no particular English word for this feeling (it's NOT nostalgia) does not mean 
>the feeling does not exist.
>
Hmmm.  Maybe the feelings become ideas when they enter the language.  They
don't have to be in the language as a particular word either; they could do
so via a phrase or a book or even a gesture or a statue or...  

Built-in prejudice doesn't preclude change.  Languages change.  Words from
one language enter another; other words seem to appear out of nowhere
(though they often are composed from other pre-existing words).  And don't
get me started on those little ol' letters and punctuation marks!  : )

I wouldn't say that someone speaking Hopi would be trapped in an entire IDEA
set that cannot be escaped from.  I would say that someone speaking any
language would be using that language, its meanings, etc.--and, though that
person might, say, coin a phrase or create a new paradigm, it would still be
within that language, which still comes with many, many built-in prejudices. 

I think Wittgenstein writes about this in Philosophical Investigations.

davemarc