Is language capable of communicating experience? | John McWhorter, L.A. Paul, Kehinde Andrews
48Can we ever really understand the experiences of others? John McWhorter, LA Paul, Kehinde Andrews debate.
00:00 Intro
02:13 Kehinde Andrews
06:23 John McWhorter
10:25 L.A. Paul
Watch the full debate at https://iai.tv/video/language-and-power?_auid=2020?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description
We think sharing experience is essential to being human. At an individual level, we share experiences to get to know others and understand them. Yet from the taste of an apple to giving birth, we know we cannot fully describe the experience to someone who has not already had it. Many now also maintain that it is impossible to communicate the experience of discrimination, and other cultures can only be understood by those who have experienced it. But even if it remains an impossible task - for language to truly bridge our separate realities - should it nevertheless remain something that is continually strived for?
Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University Kehinde Andrews, linguist and Associate Professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University John McWhorter, and Professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Yale University Laurie Ann Paul discuss whether or not language is capable of communicating lived experience. Mary-Jane Rubenstein hosts.
#CommonHumanLanguage #TransfromativeExperience #LanguageAndPrejudice
John McWhorter is a linguist and cultural commentator, McWhorter is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of many popular and academic books including Words on the Move, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language and Talking Back, Talking Black. He is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and host of the Lexicon Valley podcast.
Laurie Ann (L. A.) Paul is a professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Yale University. She previously taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Arizona. She is best known for her research on the counterfactual analysis of causation and the concept of "transformative experience."
Kehinde Andrews is the first black studies professor in the UK, currently working at Birmingham City University. He is the director of the Centre for Critical Social Research, founder of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity, and co-chair of the UK Black Studies Association.
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