Visualization
Whenever people using language try to convince their partner in
dialogue, or even themselves, that they understood a
description, a concept, a proof, and answer by using the
colloquial "I see," they actually express the practical
experience of seeing through language. They are overcoming the
limitations of the abstract system of phonetic language and
returning to the concreteness of seeing the image. Way of
speaking equals way of doing-this sums up one of the many
premises of this book. We extract information about things and
actions from their images. When no image is possible-what does a
thought look like, or what is the image of right, of wrong, of
ideal?-language supports us in our theoretic experiences, or in
the attempt to make the abstract concrete. Language is rather
effective in helping us identify kinds of thoughts, in
implementing social rules that encode prescriptions for
distinguishing between right and wrong, for embodying the just
in the institution of justice, and ideals in values. But the
experience of language can also be an experience of images.
Once we reach the moment when we can embody the abstract in a
concrete theory, in action, in new objects, in institutions, and
in choices, and once we are able to form an image of these,
share the image, make it part of the visual world we live in, and
use it further for many practical or intellectual purposes, we
expand the literate experience in new experiences.
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