Open Thread, December 16-31, 2012

OpenThreadGuy

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.

What are people's thoughts on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (nature of language affects how people think).

If it is true are there lessons for teaching rationality in different linguistic communities or modifying language to increase rationality?

It seems that in weak formulations it can be confirmed.

Have you read "Through the Language Glass" by Deutscher?

Choosing better words for some situations does train you in some skills. It looks like people distinguish colours quicker if they have different names. For example, Russian speaker will notice the difference between "closer to sky blue" and "closer to navy blue" faster than English speaker because of habit to classify them as different colours. Deutscher cites a few different studies of that kind.

Apparently, language... (read more)

4TheOtherDave13y

I know of no reliable evidence that differences between human languages correlate significantly with, let alone cause, differences in human cognition. That said, I do expect it's easier to coordinate activities within a group that has language devoted to the nuances of such activities, and that's as true of rationality as anything else. But I also expect that sort of jargon is no harder to construct in one natural language as another.

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Open Thread, December 16-31, 2012

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