ESSAY TOPIC 1

The limits of your language are the limits of your world"

is a quote by Wittgenstein. He argues that ones expressive powers of language dictate what problems
one is able to solve.
Understanding the Quote:
The quote can be broken into two statements - "limits of your language" and "limits to world".
In the first statement , the philosopher talks about a persons language. A language here is a idiom to
include any way of talking about the world, and not merely a particular language. These languages can
be ones linguistics, scientific theories .
1. Linguistics- If your language is limited, so is your world. You can't buy a book from a shop unless
you know what a book is, and how to tell that you want a book. The only way one can be aware
of such things is by thinking.
2. Scientific theories- Science broadens our horizons and lets us see and comprehend things of
which we were previously unaware. The general theory of relativity and quantum theory, both
of are young sciences and now dominate physics. Because of the prevailing predicament of
these theories, we forget how fledge they are, and how far we have to go in really coming to an
adequate understanding of them. Going back a couple of centuries , we come across the basic
concept of gravity .Before that everyone saw apple falling from tree, but nobody understood it.
Newton contemplated over this, and came up with theory of Gravity and explained the mystic
force which binds everything together.Now its one of the basic fundamentals of science , which
every modern school kid studies.

In the second statement , the limitations we take upon ourselves by thinking in terms of particular
theories or speaking in particular ways are human limits that we have chosen for ourselves.
1 Learning new languages allows us to communicate with wider range of cultures. The best way to learn
about any culture is to learn its language. You cant fully describe a culture in a different language
there will always be things lost in translation. For example, Bhagwad Gita can best be understood in the
language it was written Sanskrit. Any translation in other language cant be 100% accurate as there
cannot one-to-one word mapping in two different languages. That way, a language defines the
boundary of ones understanding. Being able to understand more than one language means there's
more to read, to listen to, to talk about. Sure, most written pieces can be translated, but I personally
believe that in every language/culture there is a part which is unique and can hardly be explained using
another language. For example, in Japanese there is a word or phase that translates into "the sound of a
smile." Thats bewildering as smiles don't make sounds, but in Japan this is a normal idea.

2 A scientific theory, being a particular idiom as it is, may also limit us, and limit the way we see the
world. Some phenomenon in the world cant be explained by science like intuition. Whether we call it
gut feelings or a 'sixth sense,' or something else, we have all experienced intuition at one time or
another .Though it cant be explained by physical science, psychologists note that people subconsciously
pick up information about the world around us, leading us to seemingly sense or know information
without knowing exactly how or why we know it.

ARGUMENTS:
Limit world does not mean to create restrictions on ones thinking. Instead Wittgenstein is conveying
that that by charting the feasibilities of thoughts, we can define the limits of reality. After all, if we
cannot imagine it then it cannot be -in our world at least. That is, for something to exist in the world it
must be potentially imaginable by us, otherwise it could never register on our minds at all.
Now a question might arise " What about the things in existence that are beyond our human minds
ability to conceive or question ?" now we must ask the obvious question "What can you imagine ? Can
you give an example?" The answer to that must be "No. As such if a possibility cant be imagined, it
cant be reason or disregard it.
As the world progresses and explores intricacies of the universe , our understanding of the world
changes. This new thinking is also incorporated in our language of thinking. Whether its science , culture
or language , our mind allows us to reason with each theory. For example the Oxford dictionary adds
new words every year to it. It reflects on its cooperation and understanding of the modern world and its
users.

CONCLUSION:
There are no limits to what we can create, there are limits of what language can allows us to do
.Wittgenstein visions a model of the human mind where "the limits of my language mean the limits of
my world." Thus, through philosophical study of language of our thoughts, we can define the boundaries
of ones minds or thoughts.