Updated Nov. 18, 2023 12:05 am ET
When you look around you, you feel as though you’re looking directly at the world, seeing things as they are in and of themselves. But a little reflection renders it obvious that we experience reality in a highly culturally conditioned way. This is perhaps most obvious when we reflect on the experience of language. When you hear someone say to you “Get out! The building’s on fire!” you can’t help hearing those words as meaning what they do.
But suppose you’re standing next to a Chinese speaker who doesn’t speak English. They would just hear meaningless sounds. In a sense, that would be closer to the truth, to experiencing what’s really out there in the world. After all, the sounds themselves are just vibrations in the air. They don’t contain any intrinsic meaning. And yet, when you know a language well, you experience sounds as meaningful.
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