Science and Inquiry discussion

One of two books we'll be reading for January 2015 is Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

I have read the book and liked very much both its content and its style. Has anybody else read or is currently reading it?
I know this book was mentioned and even quoted in this group at the thread:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

If you are on the fence deciding whether you should invest time into reading this book, here is my quick (compared to some others:)) review on it that can give you some approximate idea what the book is about:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Bigollo,
Take a look at the "(some html is ok)" link, which you can see when you start editing a comment. In particular, look at the 2nd bullet example, named "link". In place of www.goodreads.com, insert the full address of your review.

I'm about half way through. Enjoying it very much. I really like Deutscher's wry humor and relaxed writing style.

David wrote: "Bigollo,
Take a look at the "(some html is ok)" link, which you can see when you start editing a comment. In particular, look at the 2nd bullet example, named "link". In place of www.goodreads.com,..."

Thank you David,

It seems i made it work.

It took me a while to get going but once I got through the first few chapters I really enjoyed the book. It was a good mix between trade and academic. In a similar vein I just read "Dreaming in Chinese" which was much shorter and more casual.

I really enjoyed this book. Here is my review.

I just started this a few days ago - an online version was difficult to find in Australia for some reason. I ended up buying 'the language hoax' instead, but now have both (found a PDF version). I have enjoyed the first few chapters - the story is given an interesting historical context and written, dare I say, colorfully, but I am leaning toward the hoax thesis at this point.

Angus, what is the language hoax?

The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language by John H. McWhorter?

In Becky's review, she writes, "Deutscher says that language is more complex than we thought, or than linguistic scholars thought. He doesn't specifically deny the existence of a language instinct, but says that there's a lot more to it than that."

The whole idea of either/or in languages seems silly to me, too. I don't know anything about it, though. I just think humans are complex enough critters that it's easy to over-simplify causes & effects.

David, I'm still working through it - reading both at about the same pace, although I'm not sure it's the best way to 'get' each adequately enough to make a good evaluation. I'm sure the reviews of the language hoax will do more than I can for now, but it appears to be a critique of the idea that language influencing thought is overdone. He agrees that language influences some mental habits, but little more. He is also careful to say that in most cases the Neo-whorfian school does good research but it is prone to being exaggerated in popular press into something more.

I just finished reading this book. I think it is excellent, as it tries to get at some interesting but subtle issues in psycho-linguistics using the scientific method. Here is my review.

I finished this book last night and really enjoyed it. I wrote a short blurb about it which can be found here

I finished this but haven't reviewed it yet. It is eloquently written, so far more engaging than the language hoax book I referred to above, which is why I've not finished the latter. I am not convinced by the language glass thesis, however. I found myself reminded of thinking fast and slow: language trains the system 1 instincts without which, the slower system 2 has to work harder to reach the same decision.