language
And so, while language is necessary, it does a disservice to reality. In attempting to describe the indescribable, words constrain reality. Through simplifications, generalizations, and connotations they mischaracterize and water it down. They fail to capture the complexity, uniqueness, and dynamism of life. And as a result, we never truly see, und... See more
The Pursuit
The more powerful communication technologies become, the more people will fight wars over words instead of territory. Language, when wielded at scale, is among man's most powerful weapons.
Protagoras observed a strange paradox about language. Despite the perpetual flux and change of the physical world, language lends the mistaken impression that the world is not in flux, that it is stable. As the Presocratic philosopher Empedocles had observed only a few years before, ‘there is no birth for any mortal thing, nor any cursed end in dea
... See moreRobin Reames • Ancient Greek Antilogic Is the Craft of Suspending Judgment
From Donald Knuth “The language in which we express our ideas has a strong influence on our thought processes.”
Names are powerful.
They shape how we think — both consciously and subconsciously.
Here are 10 name changes that flipped public perception: