A Common Flaw in Our Symbolic Languages
Symbolic languages are important to man because only man was given godly tools, such as symbols, to build rational knowledge of God, the universe, and life. But, man is not using our symbols correctly, perhaps because many people do not know anything about symbols.
When scholars at the Universities of Paris and Padua challenged Aristotle’s science, as the 14th century opened, they were unaware that Aristotle’s logic (or logical reasoning) could present flaws in our symbolic language systems. Unfortunately, long ago the Roman Church decided to use Aristotle’s science over Plato’s science, after the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle could not be reconciled. Although this was a bad decision, it was fortunate that Plato was rediscovered in the Renaissance. This discovery showed that Plato had challenged Aristotle’s logic in his Sophist Dialogue (at 257b). Plato’s challenge has been called ‘Plato’s negative.’
Take an adjective. Plato’s negative says that the prefix ‘not’ will turn our minds into a different adjective rather than turn our minds into an opposed or contrary adjective. For instance, take the adjective ‘hot’ and negate it to get ‘not-hot.’ What is the meaning of not-hot? Plato would say that ‘not-hot’ does not mean ‘cold.’ In the 15th century, Bishop Nicholas of Cusa was the first to limit Aristotle’s logical reasoning. At the same time, Cusa uses Plato’s negative to know God. With Plato’s negative, Cusa builds a negative theology, which is discussed in Part IIa of my book, The First Scientific Proof of God. Unfortunately, religions still use opposites today. For instance, the opposites, good and evil, are still used to distinguish God from the Devil, Satan, imps, and deamons.
Unfortunately, the negative theology of Cusa would not be found in the USA before 1979. With this slow propagation of Cusa’s negative theology, Aristotle’s logic was free to expand and fill the national languages of all Western nations with useless ‘opposites. But, in the meantime, the use of logic was developing challenges after Kant could not reconcile empiricism and rationalism. Not until the 1920s, would philosophy find a new life. Then, linguists showed that ‘sensual data are primarily symbolic.’
Every nation must now remove the dirt that was added to their national languages by logic. At the same time they must also build national symbolic languages. So, a big job exists ahead for all nations. But, I believe that this job has a great benefit — will unify all nations with international treaties.
When scholars at the Universities of Paris and Padua challenged Aristotle’s science, as the 14th century opened, they were unaware that Aristotle’s logic (or logical reasoning) could present flaws in our symbolic language systems. Unfortunately, long ago the Roman Church decided to use Aristotle’s science over Plato’s science, after the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle could not be reconciled. Although this was a bad decision, it was fortunate that Plato was rediscovered in the Renaissance. This discovery showed that Plato had challenged Aristotle’s logic in his Sophist Dialogue (at 257b). Plato’s challenge has been called ‘Plato’s negative.’
Take an adjective. Plato’s negative says that the prefix ‘not’ will turn our minds into a different adjective rather than turn our minds into an opposed or contrary adjective. For instance, take the adjective ‘hot’ and negate it to get ‘not-hot.’ What is the meaning of not-hot? Plato would say that ‘not-hot’ does not mean ‘cold.’ In the 15th century, Bishop Nicholas of Cusa was the first to limit Aristotle’s logical reasoning. At the same time, Cusa uses Plato’s negative to know God. With Plato’s negative, Cusa builds a negative theology, which is discussed in Part IIa of my book, The First Scientific Proof of God. Unfortunately, religions still use opposites today. For instance, the opposites, good and evil, are still used to distinguish God from the Devil, Satan, imps, and deamons.
Unfortunately, the negative theology of Cusa would not be found in the USA before 1979. With this slow propagation of Cusa’s negative theology, Aristotle’s logic was free to expand and fill the national languages of all Western nations with useless ‘opposites. But, in the meantime, the use of logic was developing challenges after Kant could not reconcile empiricism and rationalism. Not until the 1920s, would philosophy find a new life. Then, linguists showed that ‘sensual data are primarily symbolic.’
Every nation must now remove the dirt that was added to their national languages by logic. At the same time they must also build national symbolic languages. So, a big job exists ahead for all nations. But, I believe that this job has a great benefit — will unify all nations with international treaties.
posted by George Shollenberger @ 5:39 PM
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