{
  "creator": [
    "Watumull, Jeffrey"
  ],
  "date": [
    "2024-10-31"
  ],
  "description": [
    "Contrary to the prevailing assumption that language is “primarily a tool for communication rather than thought”, I argue that language is, to invoke Oscar Wilde, “quite useless”. Arguing from aesthetic philosophy and the minimalist program for linguistic theory, I conject that language, like art, is not “for” anything—it simply is, conforming to aesthetic rather than utilitarian principles. Of course, like art, language can be a powerful instrument of communication, but its function is not that of expressing thought; it creates thoughts, “primarily” for communicating with oneself, engaging in Popperian critical rationalism, making thoughts (e.g., sentences, constructive proofs) to match Platonic objects (e.g., propositions, classical proofs)."
  ],
  "format": [
    "application/pdf",
    "text/html",
    "text/xml"
  ],
  "identifier": [
    "https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/15229",
    "10.5964/bioling.15229"
  ],
  "language": [
    "eng"
  ],
  "publisher": [
    "PsychOpen GOLD / Leibniz Institut for Psychology (ZPID)"
  ],
  "relation": [
    "https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/15229/15229.pdf",
    "https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/15229/15229.html",
    "https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/15229/15229.xml"
  ],
  "rights": [
    "Copyright (c) 2024 Jeffrey Watumull",
    "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"
  ],
  "source": [
    "Biolinguistics; Vol. 18 (2024); 1-41",
    "1450-3417",
    "10.5964/bioling.v18"
  ],
  "subject": [
    "aesthetics",
    "communication",
    "critical rationalism",
    "language",
    "minimalist program",
    "Platonism",
    "proof theory"
  ],
  "title": [
    "Language Is a “Quite Useless” Tool: A Rejoinder to Fedorenko, Piantadosi, and Gibson’s “Language Is Primarily a Tool for Communication Rather Than Thought”"
  ],
  "type": [
    "info:eu-repo/semantics/article",
    "info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion"
  ]
}