Ideas from 'An American Indian model of the Universe' by Benjamin Lee Whorf [1936], by Theme Structure

[found in 'The Philosophy of Time' (ed/tr Gale,Richard M.) [Macmillan 1968,333-03761-8]].

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13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 5. Language Relativism
Hopi consistently prefers verbs and events to nouns and things
                        Full Idea: Hopi, with its preference for verbs, as contrasted to our own liking for nouns, perpetually turns our propositions about things into propositions about events.
                        From: Benjamin Lee Whorf (An American Indian model of the Universe [1936], p.63)
                        A reaction: This should provoke careful thought about ontology - without concluding that it is entirely relative to language.
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 4. Paradigm
Scientific thought is essentially a specialised part of Indo-European languages
                        Full Idea: What we call "scientific thought" is a specialisation of the western Indo-European type of language.
                        From: Benjamin Lee Whorf (An American Indian model of the Universe [1936], p.246)
                        A reaction: This is the beginnings of an absurd extreme relativist view of science, based on a confusion about meaning and thought.
27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 2. Passage of Time / e. Tensed (A) series
The Hopi have no concept of time as something flowing from past to future
                        Full Idea: A Hopi has no general notion or intuition of time as a smooth flowing continuum in which everything in the universe proceeds at an equal rate, out of a future, through a present, into a past.
                        From: Benjamin Lee Whorf (An American Indian model of the Universe [1936], p.57)
                        A reaction: If true, this would not so much support relativism of language as the view that that conception of time is actually false.