The Pursuit
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The Pursuit
The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) perfectly summed up this frustration: “The more closely we examine actual language, the greater becomes the conflict between it and our requirement.” Logic doesn’t function unless words have a definition that is explicit, perfectly precise, and stable over time. Despite immense efforts, we’ve
... See moreDavid Bessis • Mathematica
Language, writes Karen Armstrong, a religion scholar and former nun, “is not only a vital means of communication, but it helps us to articulate and clarify the incoherent turbulence of our inner world.”14 Even the most ineffable experiences are quickly translated into words by the mind. Moment by moment, we speak ourselves into being. And then, tur
... See moreNicholas Carr • Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart
words contribute to the compression of even more expressive ideas within the special reality of the World. They can signal members from non members. They shape an aesthetic of the World like the calls and songs of a bird species cutting through the noise of the jungle.
Ian Cheng • Emissary's Guide To Worlding
To quote Sartre again: “The word is the Other,” for it embodies the full spectrum of experiences, sensations, thoughts, and feelings in all their kaleidoscopic shades and hues that our species has lived through and recorded. The dictionary is our frabjous transcript for all of that (to borrow a word coined by Lewis Carroll to mean fabulous and deli
... See moreCharles Johnson • The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling
The same is true of words other than ideographs. The English words “man,” “fish,” “star,” “flower,” “run,” “grow,” all denote classes of objects or events which may be recognized as members of their class by very simple attributes, abstracted from the total complexity of the things themselves. Abstraction is thus almost a necessity for communicatio
... See moreAlan W. Watts • The Way of Zen
We attempt to define the eternal all knowing powerful universe using consonants (s f g) and vowels (a e i o u) uttered by vibrating our vocal cords. Words reduce reality to something we can grasp. That is all!
Peter Baksa • The Point of Power
We hardly notice, because language is water we live in, but words are how we embed meaning, indicate that concepts are juxtaposed or similar or reminiscent, and form our own mental maps of reality. Words are our embeddings, and language is our latent space