The Limits of Language and Thought Part ...

Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most well-known and influential philosophers of the 20th century. With the help of Virginia Tech philosophy professor, Wittgenstein scholar, and author, Jim Klagge, we’ll take a look at Wittgenstein’s ideas about the limits of language and though ... Show More

Almost 100 years ago, Benjamin Lee Whorf suggested that thought was inextricably tied to and shaped by the language a person speaks. It’s a compelling and intriguing thought. But was he right? Thanks to Ann Bunger. Further reading: “Interactions Between Language and Mental Repres ... Show More

Limiting language and thought errors can keep you from the live you were meant to live. In this episode, we explore the ways in which our use of language can inadvertently limit our thinking and hold us back from reaching our full potential. From using absolute language to engag ... Show More

<p>How close can words get you to the truth and feel and force of life? That's the question poking at our ribs this hour, as we wonder how it is that the right words can have the wrong meanings, and why sometimes the best translations lead us to an understanding that's way deeper ... Show More

Continuing on Plato's mid-period dialogue about language. Is attaching a word to a thing, i.e. naming it, like other activities such as carpentry or sewing that can go wrong? Can we put the "form" of a thing into letters and syllabus of its name? We go through many examples where ... Show More

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about linguistic relativity: the idea that the language we speak can change the way we think. 

On Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 8-10. Is music (the supposedly non-representational artform) a language? If it's "expressive," what exactly does it express? Part two of this episode is only going to be available to you if you sign up at partiallyexaminedli ... Show More

Today on the show, we're bringing you the stories of two families grappling with how best to communicate across linguistic differences. In the first story, a young man sorts through how to talk to his parents about gender in Chinese, where the words for "he" and "she" sound exact ... Show More

In this episode, I discuss the duality of the human approach, the straw man fallacy, the simplifying of complex matters, and going in-depth with things that matter. Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTYAsjAVa3I&t=1078s 

<p>So finally we fall into the concept of Season 3, answering listener questions.  In this episode we answer a question that digs into dialogue, corporate events, house of worship, expectations, auto mixing, noise reduction, how to make a talking human sound like what the audienc ... Show More

Today we talk about the late work of Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations. We talk about the meaning of words. Augustine's theory. Forms of life. Rules and practices. Grammar. Geometry. Family resemblance. And the role of a philosopher on the other side of accepting this ... Show More

Parts 1 and 2 were, admittedly, long. So if you could not persevere through those, this gets the major points out serving both as an appendix to tie up some loose ends and as a summary of parts 1 and 2.