Language as the Ultimate Tool of Control
IB Theory of Knowledge TOK Essay: Language as the Ultimate Tool of Control
In spoken or written language, words are used to express thoughts. Words provide humans with an effective way of transferring and communicating thoughts. But can thoughts exist without words? If there are no words to convey thoughts, do thoughts really exist? Can language be used to manipulate other disciplines? After a careful analysis it becomes clear that thoughts can not exist without language, making language the ultimate tool for controlling all other disciplines of knowledge.
In order to assess the validity of this premise one must first refer to the definition of language as a means of transferring thoughts; a means of communication by assigning to thoughts specific symbols or names -- words. Furthermore, one must define thought as the power to think and imagine. With these main terms defined, it is possible to understand why language is essential for thought.
The power of thought, the power to think and imagine, is present only if there are symbols or words to transfer it. If no language exists to transfer thoughts, then thoughts lose all their value and pass into the realm of non-existence. For example, one can not effectively describe a picture without using words. If I try to explain the beauty of Raphael's painting "School of Athens," I must somehow use the words color, appearance, and reality in order succeed. Even if I was only thinking about the painting, I would still have to use the words color, appearance, and reality.
Yet, there are those who attack this premise and profess that thoughts are independent of language. They argue that while a person may not be able to communicate without using a language, that same person can think without using a language. However, this approach is false because there is no way that a person can know that he is indeed thinking of a picture without using the word picture. A person can not know that he is thinking of a picture and not a bus or an egg without calling a picture picture, a bus bus, and an egg egg. By using language to assign different words to different objects we draw clear differences between pictures, buses, and eggs -- otherwise, without language, our mind would equate pictures to buses and buses to eggs.
Therefore, seeing that thoughts can not exist without language, one must turn to the use...