inarticulable knowledge
“…there’s a huge blind spot in the language of emotion, vast holes in the lexicon that we don’t even know we’re missing. We have…only a rudimentary vocabulary to capture the delectable subtleties of the human experience. Words will never do us justice, but we have to try anyway.”
Seth T. Harrell • Affective Foresight
Keely Adler added
Wittgenstein said that “you cannot enter worlds for which you do not have the language.” Jenny Odell, in How to Do Nothing, discusses how learning the language of birders helped her distinguish better between different birds. One of the most pleasurable parts of learning a new domain for me is developing the language that accompanies the developmen... See more
Stuart Evans added
“I dream of lost vocabularies that might express some of what we no longer can.”
― Jack Gilbert, The Great Fires
Alara added
Maria Popova • William James on Consciousness and the Four Features of Transcendent Experiences
Alex Dobrenko added
when something is a vibe
This matters, because language is a form of power. It creates categories that help us interpret the world, and that which is not easily available in language is often ignored in thought itself. A shared vocabulary makes ideas more accessible while a lack of language can render an experience illegible. It can isolate.
Angela Chen • Ace
Language is “for” communicating, but when we come to such phenomena as poetry and made-up names and languages, the function of communication and the construction of meaning become as impenetrable to intellect alone as the tune of a song. The writer has to listen. The reader has to hear. Pleasure in articulate sound, and in the symbolic use of it, i
... See moreUrsula K. Le Guin • Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books
I like thinking about what comes after all the thinking. When we’re done explaining, categorizing, and solving everything that’s explainable, categorizable, and solvable, what’s left? The best things? The most important ones? This reminds me of Nietzsche’s idea that capturing something in language is the end of our wonder, rather than the beginning... See more
