Language and Consciousness
Ken W. Brown
Routledge eBooks December 17, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9780429458026-5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that Helen Keller's language acquisition illustrates the emergence of human consciousness and Vygotsky's distinction between elementary and higher mental functions, and proposes that language, like money, is essentially transactional in its uses and origins. Contends that the language game/form of life metaphor captures dialogic accommodation between alien ideas, and that there can be no ultimate, veridical descriptions of modes of thought or social institutions. |
Abstract
Helen Keller&s;s discovery of word-meaning plausibly depicts the sudden emergence of a human consciousness. Helen&s;s recollections of overt manifestations of emotion in a vacuum of emotional experience cast in high-profile the way each new name she learned brought objects to life in her mind. Helen Keller&s;s experience of language-acquisition also symbolises the radical distinction Vygotsky drew between elementary and higher mental functions. True languages, unlike systems of animal communication, provide innumerable ways of confirming interpretations of the meaning of a particular utterance at some level of dialogue. Language, like money, is essentially transactional both in its uses and its origins. The language game/form of life metaphor captures the dynamic of dialogic accommodation between alien ideas; there can be no ultimate, veridical descriptions of modes of thought or social institutions. In the most highly articulated uses of language there will be dissonances necessitating reciprocal clarification; appeals to meanings accumulated by tacit adaptations of usage.