Theory of Knowledge Question

[balzout]

I am in the process of writing a paper for a class called "Theory of Knowledge" and part of the process of this paper is finding out what others think on a certain question.

The question is:

"Does language play roles of equal importance in different areas of knowledge?"

Areas of Knowledge-Mathematics, Natural sciences, Human sciences, History, Art, Ethics

Remember to think about the definition of language. Is it symbols? Is it writing? Or is it all?

I just want to know what anyone thinks of this question because it is part of the process. It would be great to get some opinions on this and maybe some examples to where language does play equal roles and more importantly...it is asking. What area of knowledge is "language" the most important. The important part of the answer is to make sure you define what language is and what you define it as.

This should be interesting and hopefully some of you will put some input into it. Thanks everybody....

[masherscf]

I am in the process of writing a paper for a class called "Theory of Knowledge" and part of the process of this paper is finding out what others think on a certain question.

The question is:

"Does language play roles of equal importance in different areas of knowledge?"

Areas of Knowledge-Mathematics, Natural sciences, Human sciences, History, Art, Ethics

Remember to think about the definition of language. Is it symbols? Is it writing? Or is it all?

I just want to know what anyone thinks of this question because it is part of the process. It would be great to get some opinions on this and maybe some examples to where language does play equal roles and more importantly...it is asking. What area of knowledge is "language" the most important. The important part of the answer is to make sure you define what language is and what you define it as.

This should be interesting and hopefully some of you will put some input into it. Thanks everybody....

I study Mathematics. To me, language is any method, spoken, written, or signed, of conveying information from one person to another.

Language plays a huge role in Mathematics. Mathematics is entirely language. Mathematics is the language of science and technology. If a scientist or engineer has an idea, It is often much easier for him or her to express the idea in Mathematical terms. Mathematics also transcends national barriers.

As a person who studies Mathematics, I am interested in exploring how the language of Math can be used. I'm an Algebraist. Like the poet who attempts to tell a story or convey a feeling in as few words as needed, Pure Algebra is the art of conveying an idea in as few expressions as possible.

One of the reasons why Mathematics is often so troublesome is that it is anti-intuitive to natural language learning. That is, we learn new words or expressions through repeated exposure and context. However, Mathematics seeks to strip away repeated context. Mathematics is mired down with jargon and prevarication that makes much of it inaccessible to lay-people. You can’t expect a Mathematician to repeat the context of a term or phrase a second time. The purpose of employing the term or phrase was to avoid reconstructing the context.

[skyz]

i study music which like math is a 'universal language'

i remember when i was thinking of becoming a music major i went to the bookstore and took a look at the books in the music department

'the history of western music'/norton is the standard classic music history text - it comes with cd's and anthologies (the anthologies contain the musical scores of the works in the text)

instead of picking up the text i first picked up the anthology and i thought that was the book - i was totally overwhelmned seeing all the lines and symbols and markings in scores by various genius composers

it took about four years just to grasp the 'language'

in my final semester of music theory we were given an assignment to write 24 bars of anything

i did not have a clue where to start - i was panicing until it hit me

'you use the thoery that you have been studying'

the next day i was offered a scholarship as a composition major

you could have pushed me over with a feather

also i remember the day in algebra class when we were studying functions that it hit me 'the musical scale is a function'

carl jung's last publication was a a book titled 'man and his symbols' - reading that book changed my life because i understood profoundly how people communicated by what we held in common

[kowgod]

I am in the process of writing a paper for a class called "Theory of Knowledge"

Hey! Another IB student!

There are a few more of us (well, I'm former) around these boards. Must say something about rev3 viewers...

[chuckles]

Hey! Another IB student!

There are a few more of us (well, I'm former) around these boards. Must say something about rev3 viewers...

OMG!!! It's Pete!!!

-chuckles-

[rabidbadger]

OMG!!! It's Pete!!!

-chuckles-

Holy crap, that was my thought too.

[rabidbadger]

Holy crap, that was my thought too.


But to the question at hand...

So far we got a mathemetican, and a musician commenting. I'm an artist/designer. All of us are gonna say our ways of communicating are either "equal" or better...

Color is a language. So is visual composition. So is "body Language" when depicting humans (or even critters or plants) with drawing, painting or photography.

Humans react mostly to sight and sound. That's why movies/tv are succesful without having to add the other three senses. But missing from your list are the culinary arts, perfume makers, and heck, even "braile" is the language of touch. As is sexuality/sensuality, to some large degree.

It's all context. "what are you doing NOW" Are you reading a book? Then written language is priority. Do you put the book down for a snack and a beverage? Then the language of flavors is priority. Finish your snack and look at the painting on your wall? Then color and space and composition are your priorities. Then go sit and watch a DVD. The storytellers languages, combined with the color, space, and composition from above come into play, along with the language of motion, sound, music, and the cinematic language of cuts, and fades, etc, and the shortcuts for the language of time passing become priority.

Finish the movie. Go make love with your partner. The languages of speech, touch, scent and body language come into play...

It's all context, so within context, yeah, I say they are all equal...

[skyz]

Humans react mostly to sight and sound.

an interesting little 'test' to find out if you are visual or aural (primarily) is to watch how your mind reads an equation like this

2 + 2 = 4

if you are visual you will reproduce it visually in your mind as one piece

if you are aural like me you will say it/hear it in you mind

i automatically give it a rhythm and melody :D

a visual artist might add colors

the third major way of processing information is kinetic

athletes and dancers are kinetically 'smart'

[tokenuser]

Knowledge is useless without having a language inwhich to communicate that knowledge.

In mathematics, a specialist language is being used to express abstract or physical thoughts, with that language and the symbology used being vital to imparting the knowledge in a succinct and universally understandable manner.

Similarly, that language is extended to physical sciences - physics, chemistry, biology, etc., with additional symbols to represent other concepts.

Musicians too use a specialised symbology to represent a physical knowledge in a means that is universally understood (by those that understand the symbols).

Art is a funny medium. I am not sure if it is a knowledge or a language that it represents, but one thing it does do is make a record of the time - technology, social norms, environments, etc., that often outlasts the formal languages used to describe the sciences. From an art history point of view (and I am not an art historian) look at the development of religious art from the middle (dark) ages, through the renaisaance, baroque, industrial revolution, victorian england, mid 20th century, etc. By looking at paintings and scultpures from thos periods yo learn a lot about society - understanding of anatomy, understanding of architecture, understanding of materials, family structures, etc. As far as knowledge goes, it is no less valuable than a pythagorean formula writen on a piece of papyrus from Ancient Greece because it is recording the knowledge of the time in a way that is accessible without a foreknowledge of the language involved.

I am a computer scientist (that what my degree says, so I'll stick with that). As a computer scientist, you do not learn "languages" (though I joke that I am fluent in 3 major languages, and can read/write 7 others). A computer scientist learns syntax and semantics. With an understanding of the semantics of what is trying to be achieved, and a guide to the syntax involved in a particular language, you can adapt to just about any language needed. Linguists do the same. As a computer scientist, the knowledge we try to impart is highly restrictive. We are trying to have a computer follow a series of langage constructs to replicate a task - ie we are codifying our knowledge in a replicatable format that can be translated (compiled) or interpreted as required. Failure to understand the syntax or the semantics, and you could end up with a satellite plunging into the planets surface rather than achieving a stable orbit.