14 Month Old Has Yellow Diarrhea

What language ...

What language is

What language

may In the beginning was the Word ... it says in the Gospel of John. Word here is meant in a very broad sense: as a concept, as a set, as a statement as a speech and a rational principle. There is an allusion to the philosophy of Heraclitus: Language as a language reason is the beginning of the (human) being.

But what is language? Here are a few historical statements:

The language is given to man to conceal his thoughts (Dante Alighieri).

Language is the dress of thought (Samuel Johnson).

The real home is actually the language (Wilhelm Humboldt).

the most human thing we have, but the language (Theodor Fontane) is.

Each word is a prejudice (Friedrich Nietzsche).

The Limits of my language are the limits of my world (Ludwig Wittgenstein).

Language is the mother, not the servant of thought (Karl Kraus).

Language is the house of being (Martin Heidegger).

language is not, it happens (Heinz Foerster).

The reader determines the content of the message (Heinz Foerster).

Now, what is language? It is a social phenomenon, that of information dissemination used. It is not rigid, but variable and changeable. At the same time it is structurally complex and reveals several levels. Most clearly is the function as the language of the Organon model by Karl Bühler:

However, it is standard language as well as cultural-historical phenomenon, as a sign system, as information-processing Regarded as a mere system or behavior. Also play many other factors: semantics, prosody, reference, connotation, context, etc. For the great importance of the context, which is contrary to popular opinion is not linear, the following example cited: The inattentive girls listened with his ears, it was way too big to shake until then, when the danger was standing right in front of him. But now it captured the situation, which could increasingly pointing and put an abrupt end to his dreams still do not.

An example of the importance of prosody is the following poem:
all evil I wish you

stay away from my body

all ill meet you

never think of me

Or

all evil

I wish you away from the Physical

stay me all meet

ill you never

think of me

not the individual rows of words, but the sentences (propositions or expressed thoughts) are the primary elements of human language. Or, as Steven Pinker puts it, sets have properties that differ from those of its elements completely. Therefore, we should avoid the term case, we should train ourselves in it, (Alt Jürgen August) more on statements and the content and less to pay attention to the importance of individual words. It should be noted that there are different types of statements that must be treated differently:

of particular interest for us but the fictitious statements. Formally, they are also part of informative Type, but leave the question of truth can not, since they are counterfactual. This can only hold if the statements are internally consistent (consistently).

There are also four levels in each statement, which modify the meaning behind it and make the sentence ambiguous. In practice, these are to the emotional content of an utterance. We therefore speak of the four sides of a message:

first the factual content (what do I inform?)

second the appeal (to which I will lead you?)

third the relationship statement (which I think of you?)

4th the self-revelation (which I admit made known to me?).

Now for the attempt at definition: language of expression and an attendant of thoughts, feelings and volitions by Chen's character, gestures and particular sounds. Human language is the carrier of collective memory and thus the culture. It constitutes the people as people and generates an internal map of his life-world.

Leonard Bloomfield stated: The totality of all possible utterances in a speech community is the language of this speech community. And Walt Whitman said, quite correctly, Language Studies, dear son, is Basis of all knowledge, is the same first and last he had assiduously!

Further reading:

Chomsky, Noam: Reflections on the language. Suhrkamp Taschenbuch science 1998th

Foerster, Heinz: Truth is the invention of a liar. Calls for skeptics. Publisher Carl-Auer-system in 2004.

Hörmann, Hans: meaning and understanding, elements of a psycho-logical semantics. Suhrkamp Taschenbuch science 1994th

Humboldt, Wilhelm: Writings on Language. Reclam 1973rd

Schneider, Wolf: words make the man. Magic and power of language. Serie Piper 1996th

father, Heinz: Introduction to Linguistics. UTB, Fink Verlag 2002nd

Whorf, Benjamin: Language, thought, reality. Contributions to the metalinguistic and linguistic philosophy. Rohwolt 2003rd

Sceletium Tortuosum 2010 Memory

Truth - A Guide for skeptics

your senses then you have to trust,
no wrong, they can look up,
If your mind will get you awake.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe



Nothing is more controversial than the concept of truth. All sorts of groups claiming it for himself. Mutual suspicion and rejection of the other (up to extinction) are the result. Therefore, the criticism seems prima facie evident that claims (with claims to truth) that the term havoc truth more harm than good. But once we really do without this concept? Simon Blackburn, a philosopher at Cambridge feels, in his book "Truth - A Guide for the Perplexed," this term refers to the tooth. He is trying to explore the content and meaning and the changes that has seen the concept over time to trace.
It follows the finding that the present philosophy is always helpful. This is especially true for contemporary philosophy. Still trying to Blackburn, the arguments and ideas of the "relativist" and "postmodernists" understand. For only if these trends are understood, they can also be somewhat opposed. For it is certainly not indifferent to what is believed to be true or what men and women think. The risk is very aptly characterized by the following sentence: The world is an equally valid, if everything is valid. Ultimately, it is
the importance of our thoughts and speech and subsequent actions. And actions create facts - proclaimed as the word of course. Was the earlier skepticism a complete abstinence from judgments, born of the insight into the Imperfections and subjectivity of their own world view and fear of dogmatism, is the modern counterpart to degenerate into a recognition of all the conflicting opinions. The result is a blossoming of unfounded doctrines without backing in every possible direction: Prophecy, Astrology, Voodoo, geomancy, dowsing, homeopathy, miracles, angels, occult, satanism, aliens, creationism, management strategies, psychotherapy, healing stones and many other dogmatism.
Blackburn sees this development as a threat to the world, although the arguments of the post-modern relativists sometimes acknowledges. The opposite - an undisguised absolutism - is he is also suspicious. But where is the golden mean? The possession of truth is one thing, the essence of truth, however, very different. Finally comes
Blackburn to the conclusion that both sides have suffered no major victories. The project of "first philosophy" - a all this to legitimacy - is in any case exposed as illusion. We can not step out of the world, and consider it objectively from the outside. But this means that knowledge is impossible? His answer is no. Once a scientific problem only the problem itself is, relativism appears only as an unnecessary distraction. Therefore, we should readily and, all of science-based theories of inspiration, despite all reservations and provisional.


Simon Blackburn: Truth - A Guide for skeptics. Translated from English by Andrew Hetzel. Scientific Book Company (Primus Verlag), Darmstadt 2005th