The role of language in history is very important, because history is written, presented and illustrated to people through language. Reasoning is also an important factor in history; through reasoning historian create a historical record and decipher as logically possible a conclusion. In this essay, the roles and the importance of language and reasoning in history will be explored and to what extent they both help and hinder the pursuit of historical knowledge.
The role of reasoning allows us to deduce a “logical” explanation, in this case from historical fact and to decipher an explanation and if possible a conclusion of past events through means of a rational approach. When unravelling truth in areas of knowledge such as in history it is said that this process should be governed by ‘the thought that reason rules the world’ (Hegel).
This is very important because to try and reason facts and evidence into historical knowledge and objective perspective must be taken. Thus, reasoning creates a historical record and only through reasoning can we try to gain a valid conclusion of a certain event.
Through both deductive and inductive reasoning, history considers the evidence and facts and rationally deduces a truthful conclusion of the events. Reasoning is needed in the search for historical knowledge because it is the most reliable out of the four ways of knowing and only through reasoning we can try to gain a valid conclusion of a certain event. However, a pure logical reasoning is not always fully successful because reasoning is very much influenced through other ways of knowing such as emotion, perception and language.
The Term Paper on Reasoning Throughout History Women Tuana Men Reason
email: title: A Paper on Gendered Reason Philosophical thought has traditionally been the realm of the masculine; one in which men thought women were unable to comprehend. Canonical philosophers have perpetuated a theory that women are less than capable of pondering subjects of importance, those dealing with rationale and reasoning. These theories came from the great philosophical thinkers, Plato ...
For example I’m sure we all remember believing in Santa and this is because in our child like minds we logically understood why he existed. We were told not only by our parents but by society about his existence, we’ve seen him in my local shopping mall and every Christmas I remember received a phone call from him, not noticing my father was never around the same time, I never questioned it. This is because through reasoning all the facts I was faced with the conclusion that he existed only seemed logical at the time. Consequently reasoning is also influenced by how much we know and how much we are told, so who controls the facts?
This is why it is very important to remember that, “History is the past seen through the eyes of the present and we in the present are changing therefore what we make out of the past changes” History is written by the winners, “Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past” (George Orwell, 1984).
*** Humankind’s reasoning and logical understanding of the past changes as we approach the future because our understanding of the world changes as we are constantly faced with new perspectives and discoveries.
The importance of language is that it determines thought; language controls thought and thought controls language. Knowledge and the attempt to understand truth depends on language and without it the important truths that lie in life cannot be passed on or even disputed or reasoned within history. This raises the question if the truth or even if history would actually exist without language? The construction of words provides us with certain control on the emotion, perception and reasoning wished to be associated and conveyed with a piece of historical information.
The Essay on Using Language Reform to Change Gender Attitudes
If language mirrors the world, the generic use of masculine pronouns and other male-biased use of language in English would reflect a traditionally male-orientated view of the world, in which case it is interpreted as reinforcing the low status of women in the society (Crystal 368:1997). To please prescriptivists and feminists, Cheshire and Prentice endeavoured to argue that language reforms could ...
Consequently, the determination and even manipulation of the ‘truth’ and overall change in historical knowledge will be made. This is demonstrated throughout history, the dictators of the past knew the importance of language and how propaganda could be used to influence others. An example of this is explored through the polemic novel ‘1984’ written by George Orwell, the novel is a political satire that illustrates that the use of language could be used politically to deceive and manipulate people, leading to a society in which the people unquestioningly obey those in authority and mindlessly accept all propaganda as reality.
This suited the totalitarian regime of the 1948 Soviet Union lead by Stalin. It is quite apparent that language has a large influence in hindering historical knowledge; this is due to the fact that language has a flawed and vague nature. Language is highly mutable and words can change their connotations over short periods of time, it is also important to remember that words are replaced with new ones and that the meanings and understanding of those words also change the actions of the past.
The experiment “Reconstruction of auto-mobile destruction” done by Loftus and Palmer is an example of the interaction between language and memory. Within their case study participants were shown a video of a car accident, they were then asked at what speed the cars hit, collided, bumped, scraped or crashed at? The answers from the participants varied depending on the type of verb used to ask the question. This clearly represented that the language used influenced the recollection of memory and changed the actions and interpretation of the past; history.
Although the role of language in history is flawed by its subjective nature it is vital as it is the only way to convey and preserve a record of past events. “I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking there’s some kind of change” (Bob Dylan) I personally agree with this statement, I do believe that history is manipulated and that we cannot fully comprehend the past. This quote expresses that language can make us believe in anything and that it all depends on whether or not we want to hear it and reason with it.
The Term Paper on Language And Words
1. Introduction A language is a system of symbols, generally known as lexemes and the grammars (rules) by which they are manipulated. The word language is also used to refer to the whole phenomenon of language, i.e., the common properties of languages. Language is commonly used for communication, though it has other uses. Language is a natural phenomenon, and language learning is common in ...
Therefore, such thinking displays reason as the route to knowing the truth, which encompasses the idea of the continual development to perfection of knowledge. The type of language used puts forth the ideas, and concept it wishes to express and this influences and alters our perception and overall our reasoning of events. The invention of the printing press preserved the truths of history, because when the world was technologically poor, history was kept alive by word of mouth, but even through the printing press the truth and history was still impacted by perception, as it is not universal.
The written word is therefore just one person’s believed truth of the past. This brings us to another knowledge issue that influences language and its role in history. We have explored that syntax and diction used has a affect but also the translation used between different languages. Being bi-lingual and part of an international environment, I have found myself in the situation where trying to translate a phrase or a word to a friend has proven to be difficult because there is no equivalent word to express what is meant by the phrase used or if translated does not give true justice to the words connotation.
A more extreme example of this would be the interpretation of the Bible, through the different use of language different beliefs and understanding evolved. Thus the split between the catholic and protestant churches occurred. Therefore the role of language changes history that eventually influences and shapes the future. The quest for historical knowledge and the understanding behind history has always been problematic as sources disagree and are of historiographical nature. Both Language and reasoning have a very important role in the area of history.
History should be based on rationalism and deductive reasoning and tries to be as objective as possible and tries to avoid an emotional connection and response whilst drawing a conclusion. This however, is hardly successful because all four ways of knowing, (emotion, perception, reasoning and language) are linked together. Both language and reasoning help the pursuit of history. However inevitable hinders a version of uncontaminated historical facts as language and reasoning are very much dependant on one another for a foundation of support. So basically TOK is all about showing controversy but equality on the topic.
The Essay on Truth, Knowledge, and Opinion
WHAT IS TRUTH, KNOWLEDGE, OPINION AND WHY IS EXTREME SKEPTICISM? What is Truth, Knowledge, Opinion and why Extreme Skepticism is Self Contradictory? Truth is simply the mind corresponding with reality, knowledge is having the truth and knowing that you have it and understanding why it is true, Opinion is having an hypothesis but not being entirely sure that your idea is true and extreme skepticism ...
You have to show one side of the spectrum, support it, but then show the opposing side to form a balance. Its stupid like that, but it shows your well rounded, throwing in knowledge claims and issues is standard, must be done. Like what you havedone well is incorporate the ways of kwoing into the knowledge claims youve made, at an examiners point of view they cant negatively comment. But now that you have written the essay firstly what I would do is just take the criteria for the essay lay it out in front of you and actually see where your essay stands.
To spice your essay up I would take a real example of something that has happened in history that is controversial and something you can take a side on and to show personal relation and opinion you could probably use something that has happened in South Africa, cause you know alot of shit has gone down there. Then relate the question to the example, explain how reason and language has manipulated what you may even know happened differently. Then pick a side. Then show an opposing view.
I dunno im just brainstorming, think about it, if you need more help into actually finding something just holla. Also qhen you have a quote that you want to explain Centre it and italic it Just so it looks important and pretty x Bibliography Anon, Anon. “Hegel’s Thoughts on Reality. ” Think Quest. 1998. Think Quest, Web. 2 Dec 2009. <http://library. thinkquest. org/18775/hegel/realh. htm>. Sowa, Jonathon. “Theories, Models, Reasoning, Language and Truth. ” jfsowa. 14 Dec 2005. John F Sowa, Web. 10 Dec 2009. Orwell, George. 1984. Penguin Books, 1949. Print.
