Full Idea
We can have words without a world but no world without words or other symbols.
Gist of Idea
Without words or other symbols, we have no world
Source
Nelson Goodman (Ways of Worldmaking [1978], 1.3)
Book Reference
Goodman,Nelson: 'Ways of Worldmaking' [Hackett 1984], p.6
A Reaction
Goodman seems to have a particularly extreme version of the commitment to philosophy as linguistic. Non-human animals have no world, it seems.
Related Idea
Idea 17652 Truth is irrelevant if no statements are involved [Goodman]