A nice turn of phrase

[robinturner]

Sometimes writing in a foreign language can give you the advantage of originality; as native speakers, language flows simultaneously with thought (in fact, some philosophers would go as far as to say that the language/thought distinciton is meaningless). Take that last sentence: I wrote "would go as far as to say" without thinking about the conceptual metaphor involved, or even whether it was really suitable for what I wanted to express. If an argument is a journey, then saying that language and thought are the same thing isn't really going that far.

Anyway, some of my students, when they aren't mangling their syntax or indulging in cliches, come up with wonderful original phrases. The one that prompted this post (from an essay comparing Socrates and Epicurus) was "the unpleasant and sulky face of Christianity." I love it!

Comments

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

...that's really quite lovely...

[vret.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking earlier today that my favourite philosopher may well be Vilayanur Ramachandran, despite his not being supposed to be a philosopher at all.

Lecture 4 is particularly relevant.

I've just noticed that he called the last lecture "Neuroscience - the New Philosophy" :-)

[solri.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I've bookmarked it for when I can do something that requires thought, other than grading papers.