# How language distorts reality https://iai.tv/articles/language-vs-reality-auid-2171 https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262046619/ ## [Nick Enfield](https://iai.tv/home/speakers/nick-enfield)| Professor at the Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney, and author of Language vs. Reality: Why Language is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists. - Language distorts reality. Like Euphemism; a word to replace another word that is considered less offensive. But in doing that, it put distance or distorted reality. - It can be used for justification and rationalisation of actions. - Our view of reality is shaped by language. - If we don't have the language for triangulation, we wouldn't see that reality - ==We create our worlds through the language we use.== - That reminded me of [[020.300 Solution Focused MOC]], how the phrasing of questions shapes how we see. - **We constantly fall victim to an array of biases and shortcomings. We cannot depend on our rationality as a tool to seek the truth.** #Cognitive_Distortion #Biases [[202011011450 Fallacy to think that thought processes are natural laws]] - "Researchers of mind have long known that human rationality is not an ideal tool for truth seeking. Our patterns of perception and reasoning fall constant victim to an array of biases and shortcomings." [[Our reasoning is like an inner lawyer to defend our beliefs not to seek truth]] - Human reason not to discover truth, but as a social tool? - We have an inner lawyer instead of an inner scientist. It's about defending our position, and we rally others to support us (thus, it's a social tool) Language is poor to describe an experience or capture innermost feeling, but very good at social coordination: Direct, frame situations, play with people biases, regulate social life. - Language allows us to say things that are not true - like religion and conspiracy theories. Believing in that makes an individual part of a group (social allegiance) - “Nonsense is a more effective organising tool than the truth. … To believe in nonsense is an unforgeable demonstration of loyalty. It serves as a political uniform. And if you have a uniform, you have an army.” "Curtis Yarvin ## Postmodernist thought about reality is co-created, and not true - Makes no sense, because there is an external reality - if not, how to explain natural selection, our dependence on food, air, water, light, and safety needs. - As the philosopher David Hume quipped, if you are sceptical that a real world exists, then you are welcome to leave via the second-floor window. [[Language create a social reality which is different from physical reality]] - When we talk, our words create the versions of reality—whether social or physical—that we agree to coordinate around, for example, when we want to affiliate with someone, influence someone, recruit somebody’s help, or collectively evaluate a situation and work out what has happened, why, and what action to take. It’s only through our publicly _shared versions_ of reality that social coordination is possible. And it is always just _one_ version of reality that we coordinate around at a time. That version is the one we create with words.