Toddling comments on Rationality Quotes January 2013 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: katydee 02 January 2013 05:23PM

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Comment author: Toddling 08 January 2013 03:19:55AM 1 point [-]

I'm not familiar with this term and your link did not clarify as much as I had hoped. Could you give a clearer definition?

Comment author: [deleted] 08 January 2013 09:46:45AM 3 points [-]

Just-so stories about the relationships between language and culture. (The worst thing is that, while just-so stories about evolutionary psychology are generally immediately identified as sexist/classist/*ist drivel, just-so stories about language tend to be taken seriously no matter how ludicrous they are.)

Comment author: arborealhominid 08 January 2013 04:08:19AM 4 points [-]

Well, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the idea that language shapes thought and/or culture, and Whorfianism is any school of thought based on this hypothesis. I assume pop-Whorfianism is just Whorfian speculation by people who aren't qualified in the field (and who tend to assume that the language/culture relationship is far more deterministic than it actually is).

Comment author: Toddling 08 January 2013 04:26:31AM 0 points [-]

Thanks.