Importance of Language

"The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for. " -Ludwig Wittgenstein (20th Century Philosopher)


I would like to start this post by providing insight from a book I recently read written by a fellow bass player named Victor Wooten (bass player of the Grammy Award winning group, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones). The book is entitled "The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music." In this book Mr. Wooten provides a unique insight as to the co-relation between music and language. He points out that individual notes are much like individual words. When speaking one does not think of each individual word as it is spoken, instead we focus on the meaning we are attempting to convey. This directly relates to music improvisation where the artist does not think of each individual note as it is being played, instead the focus is on the meaning that is generated from the grouping of notes making up a phrase. (Wooten) Much like music improvisation, we engage in communication everyday. We don't know what we are always going to say or do but we know that we have the ability to communicate with one another and thus improvise. This is a vital point to embrace when moving forward to grasp the concepts in this manual because it provides example as to the need for the other, like the need for notes to be embedded amongst other notes in order to create a meaningful phrase.

Moving forward, lets apply the metaphor of an individual to individual notes played on the guitar. We do not use one note when playing music, music is made by grouping notes together to create phrases. Playing a single note would be meaningless. The meaning of one note depends upon the positioning of notes around it. Now think of ourselves in a traditional western view of ourselves as self-contained individuals. Edward Sampson's description of the individual as self-contained provides insight into our traditional view of the individual.

"(a) Containers have an inside and an outside; what is not inside must clearly be outside, and vice-versa. In other words, there is a rather clear-cut in-out distinction. (b) Containers have boundaries that separate their inside from the outside, and offer a kind of protective shield...when I describe our current conception of the person as the self-contained individual, I am referring to this container whose boundaries lie at the edge of the skin within which is housed the essence possessed by the person." (Sampson; 36)

We are not as simple as a container which contains knowledge and experience inside. Things are much more complex than simply being black and white or right and wrong (which I will talk more about in my next post) This self-contained view separates us as individuals, it steers us away from the importance of the other in creating ourselves. Wouldn't it would be more beneficial to tear down the walls of our so called 'containers' and notice that we create who we are in and through our relationships with others?

We need the other to create ourselves in the conversation, without the other we would be left with our inner dialogue of past relations to know who we are and what is meaningful in our lives. We need the other to create meaning, just like notes need other notes to create a meaningful phrase. Our society stresses the value of the individual, however we do not exist in the world alone, we exist in the world with others and who we are is dependent upon our interactions with those others. Whether it is in a common day-to-day interaction or on a bigger scale like the relationship of an artist with a crowd.

Words alone mean little besides the associations that have been negotiated in our relationships. For instance, we agree that guitars have strings, drums have heads, and chords are made up of notes. But our language of these things only makes sense in the context of music. If someone where to language of drum heads and bass strings in a doctors office no one would understand what they were talking about. Language is contextually dependent. We have different ways of speaking in different fields. For instance, the language used in a football game would make no sense during a basketball game. If the Celtics called a timeout and Doc Rivers told Kevin Garnet to run a slant route and look for the ball from the quarter back at mid-field it wouldn't make any sense. He would be using a language 'foreign' to the game being played and the result would be chaotic. Wittgenstein's use of the metaphor of language as a game has helped me understand how language is contextually dependent and led me to question how our society views professionals and experts.

Would it be safe to say that to become a professional, in lets say music, one must master the language of the subject?

What I am saying is that we have different ways of languaging which make sense in some fields and not others, our western view of expertise is dependent upon the mastering of language in that given field. We often think doctors are all knowing and we tend to take what they tell us for granted without asking questions. This could be because we feel that we aren't familiar with medical language and when we enter into the doctor's domain we feel positioned as the patient, being told what is wrong with us and what treatment methods we should use. What must be noted is that yes, doctor's have gone through extraneous study and do probably know more about medicine and treatment methods than we do but to say that doctor's know our bodies better than we do is naive in all aspects of the phrase. Everyone is different and different things work for different people. Who's to say one method of treatment is universal? One method might work well for one person and have no effect on another. We are experts of our own bodies, don't you think it would be beneficial to create a shared understanding between two experts (ourselves with our bodies and doctors with medicine) concerning how we are treated in a medical setting?

We should ask more questions, not just at the doctor's office, but in life as well. The right questions can cause great self-reflection in both ourselves and others, they can led us to learn things, like possible treatment options in a medical setting, which we never would have known otherwise. Questions, when used properly, can take a conversation into a much more meaningful light. Sometimes simply listening genuinely to the other is enough to cause a meaningful shift in a conversation. It seems as though western society is used to reloading and defending positions trying to convince others that our way is the best way. Why does it have to be this way? Can't we hold our own while understanding where the other is coming from and how it is possible for the position of another to make sense to them while differing from our perspective? It means we don't need to focus on persuading others to 'see it our way,' it just means that it is possible to hold differing opinions while still creating a meaningful conversation where we can learn new ways of being and understanding.

In my next post I will talk about the importance of dialogue in better understanding our worlds as well as performing as a product of relationships with the other.

Thanks again to anyone who has taken the time out of their day to read this, it means a lot and I appreciate your comments.

-Woody