0. As usual, @naval asks a seemingly simple question with impossibly difficult implications. It's Sunday, I've got time, so thread.https://twitter.com/naval/status/891586520661934081 …
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7.The generation of symbols in the mind exists prior to their being codified, understood and communicated through speech and language.
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8.It took humans ages to begin codifying symbolic representation into phonetics they could use to communicate it with others.
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9.In doing so they discovered (and thus, created) shared reality. Prior to communicated language no shared reality existed for humans.
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10.Each individual possessed the "raw" symbolic representation but there was no language to associate it with anything beside one's own mind
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11.No awareness of a shared reality with other humans was possible without a means of communicating shared symbolic representations.
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12.Prior to the development of language our ancestor experienced reality in an absolutely singular (and probably terrifying) way.
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13.As we codified and labeled more and more representations of our mind we made life easier to navigate and contend with.
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14.The symbolic representation found its way out; through the label of a sound, and later, a written symbol; a word.
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15.Language became an entity in itself, growing more and more independent of the abstract symbolism of each individual mind.
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16.Much later humans discovered that language could work in the opposite direction; namely, to suggest a symbol rather than just describe it
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17.Associations could be induced in an individual mind through language, so long as this association was explicit in the shared reality.
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http://18.One 's own mind (abstract symbolism and association) could be influenced by language (shared symbolism and association).
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19.This discovery catapulted the development of society, culture, science and all forms of human knowledge.
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20.There is a lot more to be said about the relationship of language with the mind but it is not pertinent here.
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21.Identity -like language- exists only in association with symbolic representation. Which language one uses determines that association.
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22.For multilinguals each language carries its own association to one's memory, as well as to one's perception of shared reality.
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23.A different language can be viewed as another method of interpretation for the same set of individual symbolic representations.
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24.The stronger the association between a set of labels (language) and symbolic representation (one's mind) the closer language = identity.
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25.A mother tongue is the 1st & deepest association with the symbolic representation of reality in the mind.Any second language builds on it
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26.Those associations predate acquiring new "labels" for them, even if new "labels" suggest different associations or representations.
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27.Therefore I posit that one's mother tongue, while not necessarily experienced as such, forms the basis of one's identity.
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http://28.One 's identity as experienced in the moment is shifting depending on what is associated with any given language used.
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29.As a trilingual I have often wondered which of the identities suggested by the language I use to think with is "really me".
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30.But then I remember that language is merely an interpretation of symbol, and that the mind is the symbol-creator that permits reality.
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31.Therefore language doesn't constitute identity but is the means of expression for individual symbolic representation AND shared reality.
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32.Again,the symbol exists prior to the label. The label is identity, but the symbol, insofar as we experience it as such, is reality.
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