If a lion could speak

Ludwig Wittgenstein espoused that if a lion could speak, we could not understand him.

Please discuss (would be good to see if anyone has a unique interpretation of the statement).

 

I'm not sure what your hoping to achieve, as this is hardly intellectual...

All animals speak, they just have their own language.
Some may not verbally speak, but for the most part they do make their 'natural' sounds and all animals communicate.

 

ok i looked it up

it says we could not understand him because his actual meaning would be lost in translation.

similar to me telling you that i love something. you can never really understand what i mean because words can not express some things.

 

This is my interpretation.
If a lion could speak, we would not be able to understand him. This is because, like every nation in the world, they have their own method/language. That's just what i think.

 

My girlfriends cat always replies in his own language when I talk to him :love:

OT: Animals all have their own language but.. what are you getting at? I don't really see a point to argue from here.

 

If a lion could speak, i'm sure he'd say "LOOK AT ME BITCHES. I'M THE KING OF THE FREAKIN JUNGLE. MOVE OR ILL EAT YOU"


OT: Not sure what you're trying tog et here... My cat mews alot, I don't understand him...

 

I just found someones response to it amusing the other day and wanted to see if anyone on Sythe would be able to replicate that understanding or interpretation. So more or less it was for my own personal enjoyment but at least it made some of you (pieandchips had a good crack) think about some philosophical ideas.

Malakadang and G I R probably replicated the response I was looking for best =]

 

I dont get it, explain

 

If a lion could speak english* then we wouldn't be able to understand it because it would be so far detached from the context of our everyday lives that it wouldn't be able to understand us and we wouldn't be able understand it. It can be applied to everyday interactions between humans.

I suppose a subtle example is that your friend may attach different meanings to different words due to his relevant hegemonic practices making comprehension of this difficult if not impossible (without asking him to explain). A more evident example could be talking to someone from a different continent (etc) and not being able to understand them due to their use of 'cultural slang'.

See how this difficulty with interpretation could progress the further you get away from your own cultural setting - you to your friend; you to another person on the other side of the world; you to another species.

* The language isn't important.

 

If a lion could speak he'd probably be walking around GE saying "400M drop party" then scamming everyone following him. At least that's what nearly everyone else is doing right now.

 

Brilliant.

 

L.O.L
Where in the hell did this post crawl out from
Nobody could postulate what would become of a lion speaking, because no species but Homo Sapien has developed language. Period.

 

A perfect example:

The American English depicts a chip as a fried potato snack
The British English depict what we call "chips" as "crisps"

So if a lion could speak, it is fair to say we could not understand them. In response to the above poster, every species has language,
but not every language has signs or symbols. Language is used to communicate thought or emotion through sounds or gestures. If you
look at any animal mating call, you can see how this holds true.

 

This topic is horrid and tbh, shouldn't be here. Mainly for lack of explaining the topic.

If a lion could speak. Speak what? They already have their own means of communication. Lions are able to "speak".

 

"NOM NOM NOM"

To be honest, a lot of those random questions people come up with such as this... well... they came up with them while under the influence of some drug, most likely.

I think the original author meant "If a lion could speak, we wouldn't be able to understand him... because we trippin' man!"

There... corrected .

 

I think this is what is referred to as an ineffability

 

If a lion could speak, it would roar, because speaking would demand more mental effort than the lion possesses and it would give up on the entire endeavor.

OT: don't really see what your getting at. When my cat wants something, it bugs me until I get up, and then I just follow it to whatever it wants (Open door / Give food)

 

To be honest, if a lion starts speaking to you there's definitely more pressing issues than establishing exactly what he's trying to tell you.

I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at though, elaborate?

 

Well not any form of technical language. 70% of your words are displayed through your emotions.

 

If a lion could speak to me, I must be on some good shit!