The Limits of Speech

Come enjoy an evening in socratic dialogue with other deeply intellectual and creative people.

Many major thinkers in philosophy, linguistics, and cognitive science have grappled with the limits of language: what it can and cannot express about reality or experience. The idea has deep roots, from ancient thought to modern philosophy.

The topic if rife with interesting questions we could discuss, such as :

1. When I say the world penguin what do you see in your head? Does it matter if it isn't the same penguin?
2. What is the data rate of human speech? Does the speed of communication in one culture vs another influence competition?
3. If a word is defined by other words how does that work?
4. Can my words distort your sense of reality?
5. How reasonable is it that I can understand reality through words?
6. and more ...

Some of the thinkers that have posted different views on the limits of words:

Ludwig Wittgenstein

In the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), Wittgenstein argued that:
Language mirrors the world’s logical structure — it can only represent facts that can be stated clearly. What cannot be put into propositions (like ethics, aesthetics, or metaphysics) is beyond language and must be “passed over in silence” and thus beyond us.

Later, in Philosophical Investigations (1953), he reversed course:
Words function in “language games.” There’s no ultimate boundary, only that some things can’t be meaningfully said within certain games.

Jacques Derrida
Derrida argued: Meaning is never fixed — words only refer to other words in an endless play of signifiers.

George Lakoff
metaphor limits and shapes conceptualization. While

Poets and mystics
They have long used paradox, silence, or metaphor to gesture beyond the sayable.

Robert Sapolsky
Then there is how speech influences our perception to the point it distorts reality. In his book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, he argues that our brains often confuse metaphor with literal reality — using old, concrete neural circuits for abstract, symbolic thinking — with important consequences. For instance, he points out experiments in which people holding a warm drink judge others as having “warmer” personalities, or those holding a heavier clipboard judge a résumé as more serious. In other words: physical sensations get linked with metaphorical/social judgments.

Come discuss and brainstorm ideas with us. See you soon.