My thoughts are my language

For my rhetoric class, we read some Hugh Blair this week. His introductory statements in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres struck me as a possible precursor to semiotics, which is basically the science of how language (and humans) makes meaning with different signs, whether words or body language or whatever. Blair says (in the first few sentences):

One of the most distinguished privileges which Providence has conferred upon mankind, is the power of communicating their thoughts to one another. Destitute of this power, reason would be a solitary, and, in some measure, an unavailable principle. Speech is the great instrument by which man becomes beneficial to man: and it is to the intercourse and transmission of thought, by means of speech, that we a chiefly indebted for the improvement of thought itself.

Essentially, he's saying that humans can't really think without language, or at least not think as well. Similarly, Ferdinand de Saussure, the father of semiotics, argued:

Psychologically our thought—apart from its expression in words—is only a shapeless and indistinct mass. Philosophers and linguists have always agreed in recognizing that without the help of signs we would be unable to make a clear-cut, consistent distinction between two ideas. Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula. There are no pre-existing ideas, and nothing is distinct before the appearance of language.

(I wonder if Saussure was including Blair in his "philosophers and linguists.")

So, both Blair and Saussure are defending the study of language (and rhetoric) as crucial to an understanding of thought and philosophy. They were both probably doing this, mainly, in an attempt to justify their jobs and/or lifetimes of studying language, but I think their arguments are pretty important to human life. I always like to think about this problem in terms of this (rhetorical) question: can you make an argument against the value of language?

The answer, of course, is no because, even if you had valid reasons to distrust language, you couldn't express those reasons (i.e. "make an argument") without using language. So, it's basically an indefensible position. Considering that, it's pretty strange that two great thinkers like Blair and Saussure had to defend the opposite position. But that's sort of the way of our world: everybody desires good communication skills, but few people see the value in studying communication.

While I'm writing this, I have three baseball games "on." Thanks to Bryan's subscription to mlb.tv, I have the White Sox/Tigers and Astros/Pirates games on my computer. But I say that I have three games "on," instead of on, because the Rockies/Cubs game that would be on WGN on my office TV is rain delayed right now. So, it's "on," but it's not on. I thought it was supposed to rain here today, too, but I haven't seen much more than a sprinkle.

Anyhow, I lose baseball season. Despite that, I lost my first fantasy week thanks to Aaron Harang's shutout. Surprisingly, the triple play from that game was not the defensive highlight of the day, at least not in my mind. Reed Johnson robbed Prince Fielder of a grand slam in the fifth inning of the Brewers/Cubs game yesterday. It was a pretty clutch play, especially considering Milwaukee was down four at the time.

I watched the pilot episode of Better Off Ted in my literature class today as part of what I've dubbed our teledrama section. We had a fairly decent conversation afterwards, but I feel like I may have rushed it a bit. There's a lot to talk about with that show. I particularly liked talking about Veridian Dynamics as a character. Speaking of Better Off Ted, the last episode was fantastic.

QotD:

What is your favorite Veridian Dynamics product?

1. A (computer) mouse that can withstand temperatures up to 195 degrees.
   
2. Cow-less meat.
   
3. Weaponized pumpkins.
   
4. The third arm.
   
5. Male pregnancy.
   
6. The Focus Master.
   

My take: "Hands. Three." How can you argue with that? It has to be the third arm.

By the way, ABC has a particularly useless website. Otherwise, I would have linked a few of those inventions.