I had my own version of the Kekulé problem in third year organic chemistry trying to determine the structure of an unknown molecule. It turned out to be cycloheptanone and I puzzled over the data for a few days until the ring structure appeared when I was on the edge of sleep.
Awesome! I wish I'd catalogued by Kekulé-type experiences. There have been more than one, but no immediate, specific examples have come to me yet. Maybe I just need to fall asleep haha
Thrilled to see this in my inbox! Have revisited "The Kekulé Problem" several times myself. Have you read Stella Maris? Gets at some of McCarthy's frustrations w language, I think.
Yes, the idea that language is a constraint or causal influence on thought itself is often referred to as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It used to feature quite prominently in public/intellectual discourse (like 60s-90s era) and still shows up a bit in feminist pop linguistics (e.g. Amanda Montel). It is implicitly a part of some media criticism (usually on the left-of-center) or political rhetoric in general still today (e.g. the idea that if we call certain things by certain terms versus other terms then certain political outcomes will follow).
However, hard Whorfism has been imo definitively refuted both from a theoretical and empirical position. A good popular recapitulation of this can be found in Steven Pinker's Language and Human Nature Tetralogy, which provides a comprehensive review of the arguments for and against hard Whorfism, coming down on the against side. This is specifically in the fourth title, The Stuff of Thought.
This, of course, means that some soft Whorfism probably exists, which can still be controversial. For example, it is often claimed that the Russian language affects color discrimination in native speakers, specifically concerning shades of blue.
I’ve arrived at rare diagnoses in my sleep 💤 more than once.
I had my own version of the Kekulé problem in third year organic chemistry trying to determine the structure of an unknown molecule. It turned out to be cycloheptanone and I puzzled over the data for a few days until the ring structure appeared when I was on the edge of sleep.
Awesome! I wish I'd catalogued by Kekulé-type experiences. There have been more than one, but no immediate, specific examples have come to me yet. Maybe I just need to fall asleep haha
Thrilled to see this in my inbox! Have revisited "The Kekulé Problem" several times myself. Have you read Stella Maris? Gets at some of McCarthy's frustrations w language, I think.
Thanks! I have read it and almost all of McCarthy's books too!
Yes, the idea that language is a constraint or causal influence on thought itself is often referred to as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It used to feature quite prominently in public/intellectual discourse (like 60s-90s era) and still shows up a bit in feminist pop linguistics (e.g. Amanda Montel). It is implicitly a part of some media criticism (usually on the left-of-center) or political rhetoric in general still today (e.g. the idea that if we call certain things by certain terms versus other terms then certain political outcomes will follow).
However, hard Whorfism has been imo definitively refuted both from a theoretical and empirical position. A good popular recapitulation of this can be found in Steven Pinker's Language and Human Nature Tetralogy, which provides a comprehensive review of the arguments for and against hard Whorfism, coming down on the against side. This is specifically in the fourth title, The Stuff of Thought.
This, of course, means that some soft Whorfism probably exists, which can still be controversial. For example, it is often claimed that the Russian language affects color discrimination in native speakers, specifically concerning shades of blue.