The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker

March 6, 2009

• We watched the TED talk, the Stuff of Thought as narrated by Steven Pinker -->. (Stuff of Thought)
• By doing so we gleaned basic knowledge of language and sentence construction.
• In regards to Indirect Speech Acts: Polite requests, bribes, and threats can be misconstrued based on improper sentence construction.
• Language is a tool used to negotiate relationships: Communality (families, fraternities, sororities), Mismatches (one relationship is assumed to be of a different status with a person who perceives it in a different way), Reciprocal transactions (shopping), or Dating are all examples of negotiations
• There are two states that muse be satisfied by language: It must convey the content, and negotiate/maintain relationships. This is the most important because Political Philosophy seeks to do just that, while questioning the notion of addressing the correct context, in what manner it should be questioned, or are we even asking the right questions? Do policies, especially those involving science convey what they mean to do and do what they were meant to do?