David Peat

86 From Certainty to Uncertaintymeans that language is the cause of the way we think about the world.He then shows a variety of cases and experiments whereby humanthought is able to get around the restrictions of language. But in factthe Whorf–Sapir hypothesis is not reductionist or mechanistic in theway Pinker makes out. It is really making a subtle point about languageand worldview, but subtle points are difficult to test in the laboratory,and psychologists would prefer a simplistic version of thetheory that can be verified or disproved.There is great evidence to show that the way we perceive a givensituation depends on the context in which it is presented—this includeseverything right down to the rapid eye movements when we scan ascene. One aspect of this context is language, and thus language, perception,and worldview are inexorably tied together.Human societies live in different ecologies and geographies. Thenatural world around us may dispose us to engage in hunting, farming,or fishing, into building villages or living a nomadic existence.These activities affect the way a society is structured; they determinewho does what work and how kinship and ownership are structured.It is inevitable that the particular languages and worldviews thatevolve in different societies should go hand in hand, with each influencingthe other, and here the word “influence” is very different from“cause”! It is often pointed out that, because Inuit hunt and travel inthe far north, they have learned to discriminate between different propertiesof snow and have a correspondingly rich vocabulary. But thisrich vocabulary does not “cause” them to see different aspects of snowin a mechanistic sense. It is just that they have a precise tool wherebythey express their perception. Given such a tool they are more likely tomake fine discriminations in this area of their experience.We, too, in our technological world, have developed rich vocabularies.We have to deal with different sorts of machines, modes of conveyance,information systems, and so on and have the words to refer tothem. Likewise doctors have a rich vocabulary of technical terms, as dolawyers and other professionals. Part of a doctor’s training is to learnthe names of all the bones in the foot. To know these names is to beable to discriminate between what, to the layperson, are just bones.Likewise lawyers use language to make fine distinctions over legal dis-