Language: Foundation of Knowledge and Self

Language: More Than a Tool

Language is a means, but not merely a tool that consciousness uses to communicate with the world. There is a third instrument next to the sign and the tool – something that also belongs to the essential definition of man. Language is not a means or a tool. Because 'means' essentially implies mastering tool use; that is, we take it in hand and once we have run their service. Not so when we mouth the words of a language and let them be used from the general vocabulary at our disposal. That analogy is wrong because we never face the world as a consciousness that, in a state of language, uses the tool of consensus.

Language Shapes Knowledge and Being

The knowledge of ourselves and the world is invariably language, our own. We grow, we know the world, come to know people, and ultimately ourselves as we learn to talk. Learning to speak does not mean using an existing instrument to classify the known and familiar world, but means the acquisition of familiarity and knowledge of the world itself as we encounter it.

The Enigma of Language Acquisition

It is an enigmatic and deeply hidden process. It is truly a prodigy when a child utters a word, the first word [...]. The truth is that we are so deeply embedded in language and in the world [...].

Language Beyond Individual Awareness

In all our thinking and knowing, we are always already sustained by the linguistic interpretation of the world, whose assimilation is called growth or upbringing. In this sense, language is the true mark of our finitude. Always beyond us.

Individual Consciousness and Language

Individual consciousness is not the yardstick to gauge its being. There is certainly no individual consciousness in which the language it speaks resides. How then does language exist? It is true that language does not reside *in* individual consciousness, but it is not a mere synthesis of many individual consciousnesses either.

Moments of Linguistic Unfamiliarity

No individual, when speaking, has a real awareness of their language. There are exceptional situations in which a word we use suddenly sounds strange or ridiculous, making us ask, 'Can you say that?' For a moment, the language we speak emerges, because it does its own thing. What then is its own?

Distinguishing Elements of Language

I think three elements must be distinguished here.