Single Idea 3914

[catalogued under 13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 5. Language Relativism]

Full Idea

Language first of all is a classification and arrangement of the stream of sensory experience which results in a certain world-order.

Gist of Idea

Language arranges sensory experience to form a world-order

Source

Benjamin Lee Whorf (Punctual and segmentive Hopi verbs [1936], p.55)

Book Reference

Whorf,Benjamin Lee: 'Language Thought and Reality', ed/tr. Carroll,John B. [MIT 1979], p.55


A Reaction

This is only true to a limited degree. See Davidson's 'On the very idea of a conceptual scheme'. All humans share a world-order, to some extent.