Language & Perception

[CyanideandPseudophilosophy]

I was wondering if I could get random opinions about Language and perception.

Does language affect sense perception as well as the interpretation of that sense data and to what extent if that be the case

I seem to find a lot of stuff on the internet that pertains to linguistic philosophy and the arguments about whether the primary focus of philosophy is clarifying language and terminology.

Currently, I'm not too interested in that and would like to know more about how language affects perception...if it does at all..

[Sandwich]

Firstly, if I may, I'd like to just suggest you probably not use any philosophy resources for TOK. Although technically they fall under the same sort of subject umbrella, you don't get any TOK marks for thinking philosophically or providing philosophical theories/arguments as TOK is less about finding answers and explanations and more about TOK (difficult to explain but gradually you'll get to understand this nonsense). If you start trying to use philosophical thoughts etc. you may find yourself confused, angry and in a bit of a pickle as to what they really want when it turns out you've approached it incorrectly. TOK is 99.9% about the right approach, and that approach is not about finding answers or explanations

Anyway one of the stock theories about language and sense perception (and the effect of the former upon the latter) may set you on the right track, and it's one about the eskimo people versus the english people. The english, who throughout history have experienced snow in amounts quantifiable by weeks, have got just one word for snow -- that is "snow". The eskimos on the other hand have snow around them nearly all the time and have tonnes of words for snow which record the subtle differences between types of snow and its physical nature. So one thought about language and its effect on sense perception resulting from this might be that language limits our sense perception in terms of how we experience the same phenomena. What an english person would call "snow" and have no extra s/p information about has huge additional layers of extra sense/perception information for an eskimo

Hopefully that example might give you some ideas!

[CyanideandPseudophilosophy]

The Eskimo example is one of the instances that brought to mind the entire subject.

I was also thinking about differences in Arab and English writing style and language and how that might affect perception and interpretation.

I've found at least four or five examples, the challenge now are the development of knowledge issues. I can't seem to find that many and that makes for a rather bland presentation.

Thanks a lot though.