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hey caroline, you've actually misrepresented my point, that quotation begins with "it is natural to assume that" and then the second part of the sentence is what i contribute. so i'm saying there aren't universals. besides if "the strategy ofeliminating certain strains of language in 1894 in a logical way to shape the way people think" then they can't think of points they can't articulate so here i think you're proving the claim you're trying to dispel. also, your post is called "language does shape thought." well yes, that's what i'm saying, i'm saying thoughts don't exist outside language, language creates thought.

it seems to me that the reason we come up with "thoughts" we can't "articulate" is because we have, and can only think through, language. if language is a system of articulation it must contain its opposite, which means not being able to articulate. to rephrase, because language gives us thought, it gives us the inability to describe all of our thoughts.

let's say that you want to come up with an idea but can't. this is pretty common: when you're trying to write a paper, and especially when you're reading a book or viewing art that just doesn't suit what you do and everyone else in class is having a great philosophical discussion about it and you can't think of anything to contribute. if you can't always come up with thoughts, you are still defined by how you think, simply because you *can* think. what could possibly transcend thought? i'm mimicking the argument for the limitation of language. does the fact that you can't always articulate what you mean imply that thoughts exist in a realm beyond language? does the fact that you can't always even invent a thought mean that you are actually searching for something beyond thought and thought is limiting you? NO!

this is badly written, and i'm only now beginning to experiment with this philosophy. there is a lot i need to prove here, so feel free to challenge me. hopefully throughout the duration of this course i'll be able to compose a compelling argument for my unusual point of view.

i think the main thing i need to do is prove that everything contains its opposite. that's a pretty suspicious claim. i always find that to be true, for example my video art class watched the piece "mediations" by gary hill (1976, 1989) in which he buries a speaker in sand. so what makes language visible, the sand grains moving on the speaker, is what destroys language. i really wanted to discuss this in class the other day because it is so like what we're studying, but in didn't come up in "Group G." (for Grobstein, as well as Gaby -- eerr, Marquise de Merteuil.)