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Technical Vs. Sentimental Language

March 2, 2019 Dominic Reichl

Could it be that every language game played by humans belongs to one of two basic types? Let’s start exploring this idea by labeling the categories:

  1. Technical language is precise and scientific. As the language of facts, it requires coherence.
  2. Sentimental language is neither precise nor scientific. As the language of feelings, it requires valence.

I reckon that much of human misunderstanding, including dissents on the nature of truth, stems from the confusion of these two kinds of language. To clear things up a bit, consider the following old philosophical questions:

  • Who are you? Technically and roughly speaking, you are your brain because that is the only organ you cannot replace without becoming a different person; sentimentally speaking, you are your body (mild spirituality) or God qua pantheistic oneness (strong spirituality).
  • Does God exist? Although this question is nonsense from a technical perspective, it does make sense insofar as it relates to mystical or psychedelic experiences, that is, insofar as it is asked in a sentimental context.
  • What is love? It can be anything from a pattern of neurochemical activation (technical sense) to the fabric of life itself (sentimental sense).
  • Can truth be personal? Yes, if one is playing a sentimental language game, but otherwise it is objective or, depending on the definition of objectivity, at least intersubjective.
  • What is the meaning of life? Technically, life has no physical or biological purpose and is thus meaningless; sentimentally, meaning in life is created through belonging and the process of personal development.

But answering stale philosophical questions was not my objective here. Rather, I wanted to delineate two very different types of human language, and I shall lastly stress that neither of them is “better” than the other, because each serves its own purpose: one is useful for building things and understanding nature, whereas the other is useful for socializing with others and expressing the richness of human experience.

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” – Wittgenstein, Tractatus, 5.6)

Read More

  • Extending the Map Metaphor of Truth
  • Rationality Vs. Irrationality Vs. Spirituality
  • When Reason Needs Emotion: The Problem of Rational Foresight

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