Philosophy 2822F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Female Genital Mutilation, Menstrual Cycle, Steven Pinker
8 Dec 2015
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Wrote a book on violence: claims that looking at anthropologic studies, that there is now less violence than at any other time in human history. The theory is (structuralist view) we don"t speak language, language speaks us (foucault) The way we speak greatly effects the way we think. If we could deliberately change the way we speak, we can change the way we think. Suppose you have negative opinion of a group of people, and have a word to describe them, and someone suggests we use a new vocabulary in place. He suggests that if the attitudes are really towards to people will change this positive word negative. An attack on structuralist theory, which believes words greatly, He suggests that it"s not about concepts; it"s about attitudes effects how we behave. towards people. Life is much easier if we have behave in a civil manner. It is an important value, less than nice, but not in someone"s face.
