A New Post

I just finished reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It's incredible that this book was popularized globally as a Children's book, considering the adult-directed inquisitions of personal identity, logic, and language. For example, Alice contiually changes in form and state-of-mind through her adventures, and asks herself the ol' changing-boat question that is asked in every introduction to philosophy book (you know the one). As for logic (this one is really funny), while the Chershire Cat and Alice are conversing at one point, the Cat says to Alice "We're all Mad here." And Alice replies "How do you know that you are mad?" The Cat answers "Well, dogs aren't mad are they? No. Now dogs growl when they are angry and wag their tails when they are happy. In contrast, cats wag their tails when they are angry and growl (purr) when they are happy. Since cats are the opposite of dogs, and dogs aren't mad, then cats have to be mad." In this one of many examples, Carrol demonstrates how logic disconnects from the real world when pressed. Interestingly, Carrol was a very famous mathematician. As for language, the whole tale is a stream of miscommunication. It helped me realize that people very rarely say what they mean when speaking in the common usage of their language. Don't get me wrong, we definitely mean what we say, but very rarely do the two match. SInce reading this book, I notice everyday throughout the day I hardly every say what I mean. For example, if a person were to say in regard to a riddle previously asked by another person, "I think I can guess it," that person would fail to accurately communicate her meaning. Guess what? How do you guess something? How do you think (action) yourself (not of yourself but your actual self)? What she should say is " I unconfidently believe I know the answer to the riddle you asked me." But even then how do you unconfidently believe? What does believe mean? What does unconfidently mean? When it comes down to it (figure of speech), I don't believe language is capable of communicating a single accurate message. The manner in which we use our language is so extensively interactive with the contexts (internal and external) in which we speak. The book is very thought provoking and I am greatful to have read it.