David Peat

The End of Representation 97Language and VisionContexts influence how and what we see, and, as we saw in the previouschapter, language is a particularly significant context and is thereforedeeply connected to the way we see the world. As we have alreadynoted, part of a doctor’s training involves memorizing the names ofbody parts; when the knowledge is combined with dissections andanatomy lessons the medical student gradually learns to “see” the variousorgans and components of the body. The inside of the human bodywould look like a messy collection of meat to an untrained observer.But having been trained in naming, a doctor sees something quite different—aninterconnection of organs, blood vessels, nerves, muscles,and so on.Likewise, we see patterns in the night sky because we have beentold stories of the constellations and have learned their names. Othercultures use different names and stories and so see diverse patterns.As we saw in the previous chapter, the Blackfoot language is verymuch “verb based,” in the sense that verbs form the most importantpart of the language, with many nouns being secondary and derivedfrom verbs, and so it is not surprising that the Blackfoot live in a worldof constant flux and transformation.It is not so much that particular languages evolve and then causeus to see the world in a given way, but that language and worldviewdevelop side by side to the point where language becomes so ingrainedthat it constantly supports a specific way of seeing and structuring theworld. In the end it becomes difficult to see the world in any otherlight.Creativity and DoubtThe ways we represent the world, in everything from language to artand science, deeply influence the ways we structure our world andunderstand ourselves. During the twentieth century many of thesemeans of representation underwent a change from certainty to uncertainty,and today our world is more tentative and open to doubt and