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23756 | The mind is imprisoned and limited by language, restricting our awareness of wider thoughts [Weil] |
Full Idea: At the very best, a mind is enclosed in language as in a prison. It is limited to the number of relations which words can make simultaneously present to it; and remains in ignorance of thoughts which involve the combination of a greater number. | |
From: Simone Weil (Human Personality [1943], p.89) | |
A reaction: This seems to be a germ of the type of view of language which blossoms in Derrida. But she is on to something. None of us grasp fully, I think, the non-linguistic nature of good thinking. |