Does language play roles of equal importance in different areas of knowledge?

“Schach reported to me on questions regarding the gau of Berlin. We must deal again with the Jewish problem. There are still 40,000 Jews in Berlin and despite the heavy blows dealt them they are still insolent and aggressive. It is exceedingly difficult to shove them off to the East because a large part of them are at work in the munitions industry and because the Jews are to be evacuated only by families.”2

Language is important in history because without language there can be no history. We are aware of past events because they were told to us through stories written by people who were either there or told about the events by someone who was (secondary source). However, these stories were sometimes spread through word of mouth or through an unreliable source affecting the accuracy of the accounts since people may have exaggerated while passing on what they were told, making  perception and interpretation important when analyzing history, not to take in consideration untrue and biased facts. Interpretation and perception may be found important when analyzing sources, but the sources would not even exist if language was not present in this area of knowledge.

In an area such as the arts, language has a different importance from its importance in history. The majority of the arts are visual and artists portray their ideas and thoughts through the means of pictures, sculptures or any kind of visual representation. Artists such as painters are able to reproduce such events in a more accurate form than writing as they can replicate a past happening identically showing expression and all details. However, in the arts it is much harder to understand the things conveyed, since they are not literal. It is necessary to use our own creativity and emotion in order to attempt to understand what the artist wanted to pass on. Thus, language is not as necessary since we are able to interpret the meaning of what is being presented to us ourselves, without having to be told what we should be thinking of. There is more room for use of emotions and personal interpretation in the language conveyed through the arts. Showing further that there is far less communication between the person who created the piece and the person who sees it, on the contrary to what happens in history where the writer is almost in a conversation with the reader telling him a story of what happened.

Mathematics is another area of knowledge to be taken in account. Unlike both history and art, math is an exact and concrete study which is supported by facts and reason. Mathematics is not subject to interpretation of any form as it is shown by a series of numbers and symbols which prove arithmetical problems true or false. It is opinion, emotion and perception free as formulae and methodology provided are exact and based on reason.  Math realizes on reason more than on any other way of knowing. Reason is needed to conclude even a simple math problem, such as 1+1=2. Although there is little or no room for us to make our own interpretations in mathematics, there is still some communication in the subject. It is impossible for someone’s ideas and discoveries such as the Pythagoras theorem to be adopted by another person without the use of language. The only way in which these ideas and discoveries could move on through time is if there was a concrete source in written word or if it had moved through word of mouth. Independent of which method these formulae and methodology were passed on by centuries, language was used. Language is also important to this area as symbols and numbers make it easy for mathematicians and students to interact and communicate in a concise and universal manner, without restrictions or limitations.

In virtue of the facts mentioned, it can be said that language is important to all three of these areas of knowledge. The language used in each area varies, but each holds an equal importance to the communication of knowledge. In history, language is the most important way of knowing. In math, reason is the most important, but math could not exist without language as there would be no mains of passing the information futher. In art, emotion must also be used in edition to language for maximum appreciation. However, language plays a role of equal importance in history, mathematics, and the arts because the importance comes from within the area of language itself. For history, language must be used to record events, for mathematics it must be used to create formulae and impart it on, and for the arts, language must be used to convey thoughts into a piece of artwork through the mains of symbols and visual representations.