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Full Idea
If it is true that we cannot think without thoughts, and that we learn to think through words: then language gives the whole of human knowledge its limits and outline.
Gist of Idea
Thoughts are learnt through words, so language shows the limits and shape of our knowledge
Source
Johann Gottfried Herder (On Recent German Literature. Fragments [1767], p.373), quoted by Andrew Bowie - Introduction to German Philosophy
Book Ref
Bowie,Andrew: 'Introduction to German Philosophy' [Polity 2003], p.51
A Reaction
Deomonstrating that Frege's famous 1884 'linguistic turn', immortalised by Dummett, was actually the continuation of a long focus on language in German philosophy. Non-verbal animals very obviously think.
| 20947 | Thoughts are learnt through words, so language shows the limits and shape of our knowledge [Herder] |
| 7669 | We cannot attain all the ideals of every culture, so there cannot be a perfect life [Herder, by Berlin] |
| 7668 | Herder invented the idea of being rooted in (or cut off from) a home or a group [Herder, by Berlin] |
| 20949 | Study the use of words, not their origins [Herder] |