TOK Lesson 19th November - Language

This lesson we learnt about language as a way of learning and how words or phrases can be interpreted in different ways. For example, 'teeth extracted by the methodists' could mean different things based on your understanding of English. It could be funny to people who are fluent in English and can understand the error and the meaning behind it, but perfectly normal to others. We also learnt that our language limits our knowledge. We can only think in words and pictures of things we have seen. This means we may never find out some entirely new concept of things, beause we haven't made up a word or seen it yet. There is a book of words called 'The Meaning of Life' by Douglas Adams, full of words we haven't made up of yet for special situations, like the uncomfortable feeling you get when you sit in a chair and it's warm because someone else sat on it.