LANGUAGE AND MAN

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LANGUAGE AND MAN

30- When your Lord said to the angels: ?I will place a successor on earth.? They 
said: ?Will you place one there who will commit disorder and shed blood, while 
we praise You, and extol Your holiness.? He said: ?I know what you do not know.? 
31- And He taught Adam all the names. Then presented them to the angels, saying: 
?Tell me the names of these if you are truthful.? 
32- They said: ?Glory to you, we have no knowledge except what You have taught 
us. You are Knowing, Wise.? 
33- ?O Adam, give them their names.? When he told them their names, He said: ?Did 
I not tell you that I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth? I know 
whatever you reveal and whatever you conceal.? 
2-The Cow, 30-33 

So far we have dwelt on subject matters related to such natural sciences as 
physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and geology as miraculously developed in 
the Quran. In this chapter and in the next three chapters, we will embark on 
important philosophical considerations coming within the compass of the Quran. 

In the verses quoted above the subjects treated are the creation of man by God 
and His placement of him on earth. Angels who fail to conceive the reason for 
man?s creation - a potential for committing disorder and shedding blood - bring 
up the problem of evil and ask God for a justification. God says that He knows 
things that they do not know and that there is wisdom in everything He creates. 
Whereupon God emphasizes the superiority of man in that he is taught how to use 
language. 

In this chapter we are going to tackle the importance of man?s use of language. 
The superiority of man as a being depends on his capacity to use a language. The 
philosophy of language developed in the 20th century and the vast studies 
carried on the issue asserts that without language we could not exist as persons 
as such. Once, Bertrand Russell in the 1920s (he was in his 40s then and had 
already produced most of the works which had given him prominence) acknowledged 
that he considered language as a means at the disposal of man, that he could 
handle without giving it special attention. Bryan Maggee claimed that this held 
true not only for philosophers, but also for novelists, poets and playwrights. 
Self-consciousness in the use of language developed, especially in the twentieth 
century, and became one of the philosophical characteristics of the age. 

This development is not limited to a superficial interest in words but also 
includes in its scope beliefs related to basic issues. The abstract thought made 
possible by language has proven to be the most important factor in 
conceptualizing all the aspects of reality in which we had not participated 
directly, and in handling it as well as in our communication with our 
environment. The general consensus is that this is the major characteristic that 
differentiates us from animals. Thus, learning a language enables us to become 
ourselves. The importance of language had not been conceived as so great, both 
as regards mankind in general and the individual in particular. 

The Quran, 1400 years ago, stressed this importance. Those who take an interest 
in philosophy should know that most of the new ideas are based on the depository 
of past acquisitions. Wherever there are hot debates, wherever ideas clash, new 
concepts arise, be they correct or irrelevant. During the Prophet?s time, there 
seems not to have been significant philosophical discourse. The Quran?s 
reference to the relevance of language at such a time - which people would only 
realize long afterwards - is an interesting statement indeed. At the time and 
place of the descent of the Quran, there were neither concerns about language 
nor about its philosophical profundity. 

CONTRIBUTION OF WITTGENSTEIN
Using and understanding a language is the distinctive characteristic of man that 
separates him from other living beings. This forms the essence of our inner 
existence. The questions raised by Ludwig Wittgenstein played a great role in 
conceiving the importance of language in the history of philosophy. Wittgenstein 
asked questions which at first sight would seem platitudes, just like in the 
case of Newton inquiring into the reason of the planets? not changing their 
courses and of the falling of stones thrown in the air back on the ground. 
Wittgenstein had his precursors, like Locke and Leibniz, as well as Frege and 
Russell. However, it was Wittgenstein who first brought the issue of ?language? 
into focus in the history of philosophy. 

In Tractatus, a work belonging to his first phase, he tried to construct an 
ideal definition of language that gave a picture of the world. According to him, 
a sentence that said something (a proposition) had to be ?a picture of reality.? 
Wittgenstein thinks that if we analyze what is said, we can reduce it to words 
that are but names of things and the connection established between the words of 
a sentence would represent the connections between things in the world. In this 
way, the sentence may draw the picture of the world. 

Wittgenstein believed he had solved all the philosophical problems. Nevertheless, 
later on as he advanced in years, he began feeling out of step with Tractatus. 
In his second period, he began to conceive of language as a kind of tool. In 
this period he claimed that language was a social phenomenon and activity. The 
commonality between Wittgenstein?s former view and the latter is that the 
language skill occupies the center of his concern and that it is transformed 
into the philosophy of language. Wittgenstein is one of the rare philosophers 
who managed to gather around him a large number of disciples, despite his two 
contradictory periods. Wittgenstein saw, during his second period, that language 
had more meaning than he had originally thought. In our opinion, the merits of a 
language and the targets that it conveys exceed his belief, even at this period. 
I shall dwell on this point longer in a book devoted to this subject. These 
studies are important since they direct our attention to the importance of 
language, a special gift of God to mankind. 

HOW DOES THE BABY BEGIN TO SPEAK?
Frege?s and Russell?s studies of the philosophy of mathematics led to the 
emergence of the philosophy of language. Noam Chomsky?s statements about 
language had a considerable impact in the 50s. To be able to handle something as 
complex and difficult as language cannot be explained just with the hypothesis 
that the baby learns it only after he is born without any a priori tendency. 
Formerly, it was believed that a language consisted of a series of habits, 
skills and aptitudes and was acquired by exercises, repetitions, generalizations 
and associations. The undeniable fact is that the majority of the public receive 
no systematic education. In other words, the parents, in general, do not teach 
their children about pre-established linguistic principles. This becomes all the 
more apparent if one considers that the great majority of the world?s masses 
lack a proper education. Yet, this does not rule out the fact that babies do 
learn how to speak in their tender age. 

I agree with Noam Chomsky. The baby must be fully equipped and ready to learn 
how to speak as soon as it wants to communicate with its environment. As our 
eyesight is made ready to perceive the world at large, so is our mind prepared 
to use its innate capacity to acquire what is being spoken around it. As the eye 
begins to see, wherever there is light enough, so are the ear and the mind 
exposed to hear the language spoken, in an environment ready to acquire it. As 
Humboldt says, we acquire as a baby the skill to use finite means in infinite 
ways. Even intellectually restricted children do the same. 

The following example demonstrates the innateness of this aptitude: The mind can 
be visualized as a function at first, when the empirical data are entered as 
input; one has the linguistic output, just like the number 5 is obtained when 
the square root of the number 25 is sought. The mind is even ready to learn how 
to speak like a calculator. When it meets a language, it acquires it and makes 
all sorts of operations. 

3- He has created the human beings. 
4- He has taught him speech. 
55-Gracious, 3-4 

Language is an innate gift of God to Adam and his offspring. If we go back to 
the days of our babyhood and inquire into the ways by which we acquired the 
faculty of speech and built a vocabulary, would we not be in a difficulty to 
account for the process? How is it then that we learn how to speak without any 
conscious contribution on our part? 

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THERE HAD BEEN NO SUCH THING AS LANGUAGE?
To appreciate the value of language, we must look for an answer to the question 
?What would happen if there had been no language?? Had there been no such thing 
as language, there would have been no states, cities, villages or even families. 
In a milieu deprived of all social institutions, no production would ever take 
place. Consequently, there would be no textile products, cars, glassware, 
pencils, notebooks, etc. 

Our mere conception of the importance of language is made possible by linguistic 
expression. An article on the importance of language is the result of our use of 
it. Language is not an invention of human beings. Language requires as premise a 
will and an orientation. Given the fact that the importance of language finds 
its expression in language, would man be in a position to create a language when 
the very concept of it was absent? Language is a social phenomenon, and where 
there is no language, there is no society. 

The development of language is certainly possible. But this is possible only 
when one has the rudiments of a language. A language can develop just like a 
plant that sprouts. The absence of a language would mean the absence of seeds, 
the consequence of which would be the absence of vegetation. Just consider (for 
a while) the coinage of a word to mean a particular concept. On the assumption 
that men were deprived of a ?language,? the fancied word would be doomed to sink 
into oblivion. The invention of writing was a subordinate process. Where there 
is no concept of a language, accumulation and transmission of information would 
be impossible. Given the fact that the importance of language cannot be 
conceived without it, the socialization of occasionally uttered unintelligible 
words or sounds emitted cannot be made into a coherent common means of 
communication. Language is a means calling for consensus of a community. In a 
milieu deprived of social consciousness, the invention of a language based on 
consensus is unimaginable. 

The newborn is the most helpless creature among the creatures of the earth. It 
is dependent on its parents for survival. In the absence of a common language 
there would be no communication, and, therefore, no family. The paternity of the 
child could not be established. Only the mother could be identified. Where 
knowledge does not exist, it is difficult to establish any connection between 
the sexual act and the birth, notwithstanding the period of nine months that 
elapses before the child is born. Even this connection is made possible by the 
use of language. The establishing of the family unit and the restriction of 
sexual relations to couples in humans require the use of language. In such a 
milieu, the child can only recognize its mother. It would not be easy for a 
mother to feed her child all by herself. Man cannot be compared with other 
living beings. Most of the living creatures begin to walk, to fly and seek food 
a very short time after they are born. The majority of the species of animals 
are programmed to protect themselves. The long lasting maintenance of the human 
baby - the weakest of all living beings - is secured thanks to the culture and 
the communication the language provides. The faculty of thinking through the use 
of words replaces the innate programming of other living beings. 

Had men been deprived of speech from the beginning of their days, they could 
hardly have survived. The Quran?s statement that the first human being was 
taught to speak is very important in this respect. Man is born equipped with the 
mental capacity, with an ear ready to receive what he hears, and a mouth and 
tongue to express his intentions. Coincidences cannot account for the perfect 
and complex creation of our ear, mouth and tongue. To all these, however, has to 
be added the endowment by our Creator of the potential a priori faculty of 
speech. A more detailed study of this issue will be tackled in a further work. 

37- Then Adam received from his Lord words... 
2-The Cow, 37

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