There is the world and there is language, and if we so wish, we can disentangle them entirely, set them apart and prevent the “things of the world” and the “things of language” to mingle disorderly. Right? Well, consider Wittgenstein’s proclamation that “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world”.
What are we to make of it? Perhaps that insofar as people do not share the same vocabulary, they also do not share the same world? Shall we take Wittgenstein’s words at face value and accept the proposition that concepts create worlds?
What if we turn this proclamation on its head? What if we propose that “the limits of my world are the limits of my language”? Does that sound more reasonable? Perhaps, but then we must accept that talking about imperceptible things is impossible. But then, what happens to religion if we could not talk about God or souls? What happens to science then? Aren’t its theories built around imperceptible entities like quarks and spins? Can’t science talk about the world?
How do we begin to think clearly about these matters? A good first step should be to set the relationships between concepts, language, and the world straight. That is precisely the massive challenge we will be facing in this talk.
Interested?
Please register via Zoom (link).
Talk & FAQ in English
About the speaker
Dr. Ignacio Gonzalez Martinez is a physicist, and researcher working at the IFW-Dresden on developing methods to synthesize nanostructures inside a transmission electron microscope. In his spare time, he tries to study various areas of philosophy, putting special emphasis on the philosophy of language and epistemology.
Who is the talk directed at?
Anyone interested in what makes language an effective but limited means for communication and for understanding.