Alice Humphrey

Human Knowledge Acquisition

9/17/02

Language is a system used to create, communicate, and comprehend ideas, images and situations. Words and language are more powerful then most believe them to be and are often taken for granted. Although, it is through language that cultures are divided and people are organized into different communities and groups. Yet, why is language so important and how is it believed to be instinctual among all humans?

In The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker makes the argument that "man has an instinctive tendency to speak" (Pinker 20). He also makes the claim that children do not just imitate their parents, or other speakers that surround them, but rather develop their language on their own and gain an understanding of correct grammatical uses at the same time. I believe that language is truly instinctual within humans. It is a true statement that we need a means to communicate. Although, I do not agree with Pinker that children do not imitate their parents. Without any exposure to the English language American children would not develop English but rather a language that they make up on their own, as in the example that follows. It is by listening to their parents and understanding what they are saying through repetition that children gain an understanding of the English language. Children need some external cause to spark the language instinct within them.

It has been proven that the majority of children all across the world begin speaking around the same age, despite their upbringings and the culture in which they are raised. Because there is little variance in the age in which we learn to speak even among people who live completely across the country from each other and who grow up in opposing cultures, it could be agreed that language is instinctual. It is a natural instinct ingrained within the species humankind.

Also, language could be seen as instinctive because there is a basic need among all peoples to communicate within society. Whether this is accomplished through verbal, written, or even sign language humans necessitate communication in some form. Even if two members of society were put in isolation since birth they would still develop a way to communicate. While their language may not resemble any other language in the world such as English, Arabic or French, there would be such a need for communication between the two people that they would develop a mutual understanding for things between themselves. While outsiders may not be able to understand their language it is still a valid language because it is a means for people to communicate and relate with each other.

While language is something that is a common link between all peoples of the world it can also be seen as very individualistic. Language and the way each person speaks is a representation of that person’s individual personality. The way people speak can make them seem approachable or not, nice or mean, fun or boring. A person’s body and oral language combined give others important first impressions in which to base a decision as to whether or not they want to pursue a relationship past acquaintanceship. Without language in all of its many forms people would not be able to express themselves or their sense of self as well as what their beliefs are.

What is a person’s sense of self and how do we fully comprehend that within ourselves in order to express it to the world through language? I think that a person’s sense of self is knowing who they are and what they believe. More deeply put, it is an understanding of the individual soul and how it makes each person unique from others. In gaining an understanding for ourselves we gain an appreciation for our individuality and we also gain control over what we do and why we do the things we do. Without any understanding of our soul we would be apt to make irrational as well as inconsistent decisions.

Without any understanding of ourselves we also make it harder for others to get to know us and understand us. There is a certain amount of confidence gained as people continue to grow and learn about themselves. The more they learn the more comfortable they are with their true inner selves resulting in the ability to portray that soul and express it to the world. Humans also gain a greater understanding for life in general and the many different aspects of life by relating them to their soul. One can analyze certain aspects of life and how those things affect them. This brings about a new level of knowledge within the world.

What is knowledge anyhow and how do we as humans gain knowledge? Within society today knowledge is one of the most highly regarded and sought after things - probably second to money. Although, it is believed that only with knowledge comes success and success translates into money. Society puts huge amounts of pressure on kids today to pursue their knowledge. This is done by pushing kids to get into the highest ranking colleges and universities across the nation, and, to push themselves even further to achieve and gain new knowledge everyday while attending their nationally ranked school. Western thought seems to think that without knowledge one is surely doomed to fail.

How much knowledge is too much knowledge though? When can one be pushed to far into knowing too much? Is there a limit to knowledge and if so how can that limit be defined? Some people believe that too much knowledge can be dangerous. For example, knowing when you are going to die could be potentially dangerous as could having the ability to predict every event in one’s own life before it happens. This could be a possible threat because nobody could ever experience life to its fullest. One of the most exciting things about living is the unpredictability of what is going to happen next. People could never be surprised or even hurt because hurtful or harmful situations could easily be avoided if they were predetermined.

Life would be dull if everyone knew what to expect things and when because we would make decisions on the predicted outcome rather than what we believed could happen. With too much knowledge we would lose our sense of free will.

I believe that there is a danger in knowing too much. Some modern science scares me such as the thought that one day scientists could know the entire gene code for humans and therefore could genetically "fix" babies to fit society’s ideal. This seems to be paralleling a utopian society such as those written about in books like Brave New World by Aldous Huxley or 1984 by George Orwell. It is difficult to determine a limit to knowledge though, because for example with the genetics problem it is important to figure out the human gene for medicinal purposes. If we could fix such diseases that plague society today such as cancer people would be able to live longer. Although, an argument against this is that cancer is a disease that is a part of this world for a reason or else it would not be a part of society. It is very difficult to pinpoint limits and rules regarding knowledge, especially with such new and foreign ideas that we are learning about in science.

Language is connected to both our understanding of ourselves and knowledge in many different ways and therefore plays an important part in our society. It is through language that we learn and gain knowledge. By reading books and exposing ourselves to written language that we learn new ideas as well as through discussion of those new ideas and things that we read. Without language we would not have a means to express the ideas that we believe and the knowledge that we have. As well, it is through knowledge and understanding of ourselves that we gain a sense of self and understanding of the soul. And through language we can express ourselves to the world.

Language plays an important part in every person’s life. It is a daily habit – something that we must do every single day in some way, shape or form. While language is too often taken for granted we can easily see how vital it is to our lives and to humans in general.

Works Cited