Language Is a “Quite Useless” Tool: A Rejoinder to Fedorenko, Piantadosi, and Gibson’s “Language Is Primarily a Tool for Communication Rather Than Thought”

Abstract

Contrary to the prevailing assumption that language is “primarily a tool for communication rather than thought”, I argue that language is, to invoke Oscar Wilde, “quite useless”. Arguing from aesthetic philosophy and the minimalist program for linguistic theory, I conject that language, like art, is not “for” anything—it simply is, conforming to aesthetic rather than utilitarian principles. Of course, like art, language can be a powerful instrument of communication, but its function is not that of expressing thought; it creates thoughts, “primarily” for communicating with oneself, engaging in Popperian critical rationalism, making thoughts (e.g., sentences, constructive proofs) to match Platonic objects (e.g., propositions, classical proofs).

Keywords

• aesthetics
• communication
• critical rationalism
• language
• minimalist program
• platonism
• proof theory