Telepathy versus Linguaphilia

"Those who would prefer telepathy to language are the linguistic equivalent of those who would prefer taking pills to eating a meal."

I composed this aphorism yesterday after reading a tweet in which someone had expressed exactly that preference for telepathy (to the detriment of language). I can't find the tweet now, but I think the preference was justified in terms of language being divisive or in some other way an obstacle to a desired end.

I am not sure my aphorism works very well, since, depending on how we imagine telepathy (or how we have experienced it, if we have), we might think that telepathy is a greater feast than language. Nonetheless, something about the aphorism holds true, I think. Those who see language as divisive see it as merely instrumental, and as not sufficiently instrumental in the purpose for which it is used; in other words, it is a poor tool with no intrinsic value.

I doubt that such a view of things does justice to the reality of language. One can read a book at different times and experience it differently each time. I suggest this would be less the case with a telepathic transmission. This is because language, in standing between the speaker/writer and listener/reader, has an objective existence. The two can discuss the words of the former and the former can, based on this discussion, change his mind about what his words imply. Language interacts with and helps shape thought. 

I suspect that even those who are telepathic might wish to study philosophy using language, or to compose poems for the feeling that they had 'nailed it' with a definition, with a choice phrase, or with a pleasing rhyme. The idea of having 'nailed it' is something I hope to elaborate later.




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