Nov 27, 20193 min read

The Stuff of Thought

Why should I read The Stuff of Thought

The Stuff of Thought, is an interested read I am not a fan of most of Steven Pinker’s work, its similar to Malcolm Gladwell’s work.

Which is basically me saying a lot of big words will get thrown around in order to serve whatever purpose the author wants to make.

What does 9/11 have to do with linguistics

Pinker makes a case that, there were two separate attacks one on the north tower and one on the second tower.

Technically, a plane hit the pentagon and a plane crashed in a field, so that would be four.

When I came across this portion of the book, Steven Pinker makes it a point to point out that Larry Silverstein sued for 7 billion dollars, or 3.5 per tower that was hit as it was two separate events.

However, I would of thought, that the point of this section would be to point out how we associate The Twin towers with 9/11 but not the field in Pennsylvania or The pentagon.

Since we are talking about the intricacies of words.

Ambiguity can often get people into trouble, and sometimes when reading the work of famous authors, I wonder it they are pushing bias on to us.

Or if they want to force us to read between the lines so they leave certain portions out on purpose. In order to spark long form ponderings of said topics and subjects.

Or am I simply thinking to deep, and the real agenda, is to read their words and deem them to be true?

Colonialism

Now when it comes to taking over other people’s land, the language used to describe this event is funny. America is always liberating someone from a dictator, by destroying the country and taking their resources.

So on the surface level, when there is a force narrative, of we are bringing peace to this region, why is it, that the actions fail to match the words?

The stuff of thought as it pertains to names

We tend to associate names to people biographies, personality and life. If you think of your mom, you think of her name, and your relationship with her.

Where as when you think of a celebrity you think of their life’s work.

Some people may even instantly dislike someone for having the same name as their school bully.

Over time certain words, that were once common place and acceptable become politically incorrect.

We don’t have to delve deep into this one because its obvious what they are.

In other instances, you may find that growing up your parents told you not to say certain words, because they knew its true origin, where you did not, or were not old enough to understand.

For example jerk is short for jerk off, scumbag was once the word for condom, and so on and so forth.

Summary

in essence The Stuff of Thought is food for thought, there are power in words, my only gripe is that this book does differ from his earlier work. Which I guess can signify growth or a deeper understanding of language.