Language as a Tool for Human Evolution

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THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE ESSAY:

LANGUAGE AND KNOWLEDGE

Question: How does the capacity to communicate personal experiences and thoughts through language affect knowledge? To what extent does knowledge actually depend on language: on the transmission of concepts from one person or generation to another, an on exposure of concepts or claims to public scrutiny?

        Language is, in my personal opinion, one of the most important ways of knowing when linked to sharing knowledge, as it is the one that helps us to share ideas and knowledge most. While sense perception relies on a single person’s perception of the world around them, reason depends on pre-established order and logic, and emotion pertains primarily to a person’s reaction to various situations; language is a way of knowing that links us as humans together, and allows us to exchange information and ideas so as to progress both independently and as a society. Language is practical only in certain situations if used only by one person for his or her own benefit, though it has a myriad of other uses if it is taken as a way of communicating and sharing information. It is a crucial way of knowing that is used in all of the areas of knowledge, allowing us to communicate efficiently and get our message across so as to avoid repetition and leave room for evolution.

        Language is one of our only ways of sharing the knowledge and information that we come across. Though some people claim that they think in pictures, colours or shapes, as opposed to with words, it is language as we conventionally recognize it, with sentence structure, words and standard grammar that allows us to explain a concept or idea to another person. Without language to allow us to explain our discoveries and understanding of new ideas to each other, much of the knowledge gained on a daily basis would be lost, and society would not evolve as much. If scientists discovering new chemical reactions had not written them down and then explained them to others, we would still be trying to understand how acids neutralize bases, instead of moving on and building on that knowledge to discover more things that allow our society to progress. One limit of language, however, is that it is extremely diverse, and thus, it can take a good deal of time for the message to cross the language barrier and be shared in such a way that others can benefit from it. In large research labs where the scientists are of a variety of ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, it can be very difficult for a scientist who has just discovered something to explain it to the others so that they can build on this discovery, and professional scientific translators often have to be brought in to ensure that the translation is done properly. This wastes valuable time when research on critical subjects such as cancer treatment is being performed, and can often result in long lulls in research as labs attempt to make their discoveries accessible to all through translation.

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        Language can also allow us to lend a more tangible meaning to abstract concepts or theories and to put them into a real-life application that makes them more understandable. I personally frequently use spoken language to try and understand concepts and problems in mathematics. When I find myself confused over what approach to take when dealing with a problem or what the statement is asking me to find, I will generally try to read the problem out loud, analyze the mathematical terms used and, when necessary, redefine them in a way that I understand better. In an international environment where ...

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