Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 19:29:23 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712190029.TAA24694@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Colin Fine Sender: Lojban list From: Colin Fine Subject: Re: linguistics journals X-To: Lojban list To: John Cowan In-Reply-To: <882447831.154597.0@listserv.cuny.edu> X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 2051 X-From-Space-Date: Thu Dec 18 19:29:24 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU vecu'u le notci po'u <882447831.154597.0@listserv.cuny.edu> la Robin Turner cu cusku di'e >la djef. cusku di'e > >>>I do not think that there is anything that Lojban, or ANY language, >>>natural or constructed, can do to improve my thinking. I do not think in >>>Lojban, or English, or any other language; I just THINK. You usually have >>>to CONSTRUCT a language in which to express your ALREADY EXISTING >>>thoughts, and I consider that thought and language are separate things. >> > >This is an extremely controversial philosophical point, and one which I >think has surfaced before on this list, so I won't go into the arguments. >My advice to Geoff and Colin is to try "just thinking"; the most you're >likely to be able to come up with is a few pictures. If you can do even >this without any words coming into your head, you're well on the way to a >mystical experience. As for whether language can improve your thinking, I >think any second language will improve your thinking to an extent, and a >language which is designed to be as logical as possible ought to do this to >a greater extent. There is in fact nothing particularly remarkable about >this; if I put a particularly knotty problem into symbolic logic, all I am >doing is using a different language to help me think better. ki'a .i uesai .i mi nu'o se gunma lei casnu be di'u mi'e kolin > >co'o mi'e robin. > >============================================================================ >=========== >Robin Turner > >Bilkent Universitesi, >IDMYO, >Ankara, >Turkey. > > -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Colin Fine 66 High Ash, Shipley, W Yorks. BD18 1NE, UK | | Tel: 01274 592696/0976 635354 e-mail: colin@kindness.demon.co.uk | | "Don't just do something! Stand there!" | | - from 'Behold the Spirit' (workshop) | -----------------------------------------------------------------------