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Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
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Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning
05:33

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Published on: January 29, 2020

Language and practice.

Harry Collins1

  • 1School of Social Sciences, University of Cardiff, Glamorgan Building, Cardiff CF10 3WT, Wales, UK. CollinsHM@Cardiff.ac.uk

Social Studies of Science
|October 18, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Language is more central than physical practice for individual learning and practical understanding. This linguistic focus enables societal structures like scientific specialities and division of labor.

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Area of Science:

  • Philosophy of Science
  • Sociology of Knowledge
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • The relationship between language, physical practice, and practical understanding is a key philosophical puzzle.
  • Previous research has not adequately distinguished between individual acquisition and collective formation of practical abilities.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the relative contributions of language and physical practice to individual practical understanding.
  • To re-evaluate philosophical problems concerning practical knowledge and societal structures.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis of the roles of language and physical practice.
  • Introduction of new concepts: 'special interactional expert', 'practice language', and 'methodological interactionalism'.

Main Results:

  • Language is argued to be more central than physical practice for individual acquisition of practical understanding.
  • Physical practice's influence is primarily at the collective level of language formation, not individual skill acquisition.
  • Domain-specific languages embed practices, serving as the primary source of individual practical understanding.

Conclusions:

  • Distinguishing individual and domain levels of practice/language resolves previously intractable philosophical problems.
  • Fractal-like, embedded relationships between domains of practice/language explain coordinated action.
  • The proposed framework, 'methodological interactionalism', offers new insights into social and scientific organization.