Yesterday's New York Times...

[Alexander Gross2]

Thanks for that Vico citation, Wolfgang,  And thanks also for your two
fascinating websites, where I have already wandered a bit & will wander
further.

Yes, i too enjoy quotes that sum up a great deal in a few words, especially
during this era when so many linguists use so many words to say so little.
Two of my favorite ones are the Epictetus epigram i used in Greek & English
towards the end of my Dartmouth paper:

Real things don't cause people trouble,
Only ideas about real things.

And G.C.Lichtenberg's incisive observation:

Language originated before philosophy,
and that is what is the matter with philosophy.

which I also have in German somewhere.

I can't help wishing that the founder of mainstream linguistics had
encountered and understood those words back during the 'Fifties.  If he had,
perhaps we would have been spared the pairing of linguistics with philosophy
at the MIT department, all the while also claiming the field as a science,
and even as a technology able to spawn switchboxes and parameters.

Lichtenberg is in any case one of my heroes, someone who despite a severe
physical handicap managed to excel as both a physicist and a "witticist,"
something not too many scientists have managed.

One possible response to Vico has perhaps come from the English biologist
T.H. Huxley, grandfather of Aldous, Julian and Andrew:

      The great tragedy of Science--the slaying
       of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

And here too perhaps a parallel with mainstream linguistics.

Thanks again, and all the very best!

alex


----- Original Message -----
From: "Wolfgang Schulze" <W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de>
To: "Alexander Gross2" <language at sprynet.com>
Cc: <funknet at mailman.rice.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: [FUNKNET] Yesterday's New York Times...


> Dear Alexander,
> In the context of your posting: What about Giambattista Vico's dictum
> (one of my most favorite ones):
> "Scientia ipsa humana nihil aliud sit ubi efficere ut res sibi pulchra
> proportione respondeant [some sources read: respondiant]." :-)
> Best wishes,
> Wolfgang
>
> Alexander Gross2 wrote:
> > Some of you are likely to find the cover article of yesterday's New York
Times Magazine of some interest.  Its brief summary runs as follows:
> >
> > "Much of what we're told about diet, lifestyle and disease is based on
epidemiologic studies. What if it is just bad science?"
> >
> > I wonder how some of you might feel if  that summation were changed to
read as follows:
> >
> > "Much of what we're told about language and linguistics is based on
theoretical and statistical studies. What if it is just bad science?"
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
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