We cannot describe how we operate
We cannot communicate how we perceive the world. We can show people, we can make statements. But our language – our communicative abilities – hit the limit when we try to describe the way in which we see the world. If it were possible to describe this, disagreements could be erased. Everyone’s explanations for behaviors and events would make perfect sense. I would say all of the experiences that accumulated to make my perceptions, and then you would tell me yours. Yours would be sensible. Mine would be sensible. There would be no disagreement, that is, unless we had to decide what to do next.
1 Comments:
To say "we cannot communicate how we perceive the world," may be overstating things a bit. We may not be able to FULLY communicate how we perceive the world, but we can certainly communicate some. To say, "upon hearing the news, Michael felt like the world had exploded and he had been left alone, stranded, floating slowly through the cosmos," is, as you would say, unexact and imprescise, but it does communicate something. It communicates a bit of how Michael experienced the news he heard. This is precisely why metaphor is useful. It communicates, in part, what is impossible to communicate. Even complete gibberish, as Lewis Carroll taught us, still communicates something.
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