 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
Philosophers and bookish people generally tend to live a life dominated by words, and even to forget that it is the essential function of words to have a connection of one sort or another with facts, which are in general non-linguistic. ...
Language, like other acquired ways of behaving, consists of useful habits and has none of the mystery with which it is often surrounded. There is nothing new in the superstitious view of language, which has come down to us from pre-historic ages.
Source： My Philosophical Development, 1959,chap..13: Language.
More info.: https://russell-j.com/cool/54T-1301.HTM
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People who read only books and do not know much about the real world and everyday life tend to think that others are not very smart if others do not understand what they say. If you try to speak as concretely as possible about matters that can be stated concretely, and if you make an effort to explain abstract matters as clearly as possible, many people will be able to understand even difficult issues.
However, there is a tricky type of person who is the opposite of a philosopher or a reader (someone who rarely reads books and does not think logically). There are also people (e.g. Koizumi Shinjiro) who speak in simple language but do not have a good understanding of the subject they are talking about, or worse, do not understand what they are saying. For such people, first of all, as Socrates says, ‘Know thyself!’.
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