more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
What we call "scientific thought" is a specialisation of the western Indo-European type of language.
Clarification
Meaning it depends on a particular language
Gist of Idea
Scientific thought is essentially a specialised part of Indo-European languages
Source
Benjamin Lee Whorf (An American Indian model of the Universe [1936], p.246)
Book Ref
'A Companion to Epistemology', ed/tr. Dancy,J. /Sosa,E. [Blackwell 1993], p.246
A Reaction
This is the beginnings of an absurd extreme relativist view of science, based on a confusion about meaning and thought.
| 3917 | Scientific thought is essentially a specialised part of Indo-European languages [Whorf] |
| 22183 | Switching scientific paradigms is a conversion experience [Kuhn] |
| 8222 | Concepts are superior because they make us more aware, and change our thinking [Deleuze/Guattari] |
| 17397 | The periodic system is the big counterexample to Kuhn's theory of revolutionary science [Scerri] |