The Role Of Language Essay -- essays research papers

The Role of LanguageCan contemporary discourse seize a community of interest? In order to answer this question, peerless is forced to initiatory answer the question, merchant valet language be habituate to reveal anything new? If the answer is yes, then how cig bet it do this and how stack we employ it to do this for us. Also, one is forced to ask what is it exactly that we ar looking for? Once weve found it, how can we use it to remediate our reach condition? Plato and Descartes both believe that language can indeed improve our conditions through its revelation, and both give methods to attain new realizeledge. Although immensely differing, in that Descartes builds acknowledgeledge from the ground up, while Plato works from a warp view, and seeks to clarify it, their philosophies mean the most, and bugger off the highest practical purpose when they are assiduous together. By basing a Socratic argument on Descartes pre-established truths, one can attain undoubtable ne w knowledge. This knowledge can, and go forth improve society. The reason it will do this is explainable by looking at the tendency that man has to go under himself once he knows in certitude that he has been pretended in his actions. Any enlightened individual who has, in the past, made mistakes receivable to their own ignorance, would, upon learning the error of their ways, not return into err, but use the knowledge to correct their previous mistake. So it is with society. Once we comment start where we are in err, it would be ignorant of us not to correct ourselves. Before we can look at finding knowledge, however, we must first look at how we should properly use language.Socrates and Plato see language in general as the mechanism to provide truth and knowledge. In engaging in argument, Socrates is given a definition of a word such as courage, plainlyice or piety. Then, rather than giving his own definition in retort, he offers a situation in which the given definition is paradoxical and then challenges his opponents to find whateverthing which is earthy to all courageous, just or sanctimonious acts. The commonality in things is the goal that Plato and Socrates are striving for. What makes things, like just acts, the same even though they all differ in some way? What is it that all separate just acts have in common so that they are recognizable as just acts? Knowledge is to know what isnt evident in the object or action, but to know what it is that makes all objects ... ...ve no one would care to argue this point. Since we are agreeable with our lot in life and do not care to appear for truth but rather have it handed to us for the live of an education, cable bill and Internet connection per month, are we not the fools who are content while the enlightened few, the philosophers and all those others who think for themselves, remain dissatisfy with our situation. As Plato and Socrates would certainly suggest, language use is essential if we a re to have some idea of a means to achieving our goal as humans in society. It is quite evident now that language is indeed a powerful tool and can be used for reasons of knowledge and for reasons of power. It is overly quite obvious that today only a small reckon of the population use their own heads to think and leave the power all to the modern institutions of knowledge distribution. By using Aristotelian Logic, arguments can be used to produce truths, so long as the set forth are true, and Descartes has provided this foundational truth. Using argument, talking to each other, one can find the commonality in all things, and discover what our own commonalties are as human beings and as elements in the state.