°°°Verbalism and Idolatry of Words.°°° ATS refference... verbalism |ˈvərbəˌlizəm| noun concentration on forms of expression rather than content. • a verbal expression. • excessive or empty use of language. When we go and get some sleep, we can almost imagine that we acquire something called “sleep” as we lay our heads to pillow. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no such something called “sleep” that we acquire. No entity, individual, substance or object can be found or imagined that is called “sleep”; and this is because no such entity exists. To illustrate further: when we go for a walk, we never actually go for something called a “walk”. There is only ever us walking—what walks is the only thing that exists in this instance—and the image we create in our mind which indicates to the memory that between this time and that time we were walking, we call a “walk”. There is no such thing as a “walk”, but this doesn’t change the fact that we speak about a walk as if it was something we can go for. The same can be said of many words—too many words. When we lose consciousness, there is no such thing called consciousness that we are losing, we are simply no longer conscious. When we lose our sight, we don’t actually lose something called “sight”, we simply stop seeing. When we have a thought, there isn’t something called a “thought” that we can have, we are simply thinking. When we have a dream, there is never any substance or entity called a dream that is there, it is simply us dreaming. Yet we speak about these things as if they existed as things. This all sounds trivial and perhaps a little unnecessary, but the act of turning verbs into nouns and employing them as such in our day to day language is rampant in English, and I think it leads to mistaken ontological conclusions. This may prove, in the end, to be unavoidable, as it is the nature of our language to seek convenience over intelligibility, to abstract what is concrete, but we can at least be aware of our own verbalism in such instances. For instance, it can be argued, but never observed, that there are such things or substances called sight, perception, mind, awareness, being, redness, thoughts, dreams, etc. and most people will exercise their faith in these words by using them and sometime venerating them. Philosophers have argued over the nature and properties of Thoughts, Wisdom, Justice, Being, Happiness, Consciousness, and so on for thousands of years, when no such nature or properties are available. Plato could not find these ideas with his senses, so he imagined they exist in a realm outside our own. Kant’s greatest work was his “Critique of Pure Reason”, which amounts to a critique of pure nothing but Kant thinking about the word “reason”. Likewise, when philosophers ponder “virtue” or “justice” or “wisdom” or “good and evil”, they can only ever talk about the humans that conduct themselves in such ways. The humans exist, but their ways do not. This may sound sad to weak ears, but is nonetheless apparent to the common senses—there is never anything called “love”, “happiness”, “awareness”, “consciousness”, “fortune” that exist in the world. No such persons, places or things can be found. Like past and future, they are only available in “hindsight”, in “memory”, in “thought”—or more honestly—in us. There is no concrete entity, individual, substance or object that can bear the label of these nouns; and this is because no such entities or individuals or objects exist. What does exist is the entity, individual, substance or object that performs these tasks—the entity that loves, that is happy, that is aware, that is conscious, that is fortunate. Only that can be our “love”, our “consciousness”, our “happiness”; because only that can perform or exhibit these movements. When we see two people in love, what exists? those two people, or “love”? When we see a conscious child, what exists? that child, or “consciousness”? Yet people will place “love” or sacrifice or selflessness as the supreme good, as if these had any value apart from that which performs them. But this is idolatry of words, placing the words “love” and “consciousness” above that which loves and is conscious.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 22:21:07 +0000
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