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by coldtea 818 days ago
>Strong Sapir-Whorf (linguistic determinism - language constrains thought) became pretty much seen as a joke by the 1980s

Was there any substantial empirical reason it was "seen as a joke", or just changing philosophical fashion?
1 comments
jameshart 818 days ago
In general, as I understand it, there was only ever evidence for a weak version, and many of the cited anthropological examples that make the case turn out to have dubious factual basis - the old ‘Eskimos have hundreds of words for snow’ and ‘there’s a tribe in Africa who have no word for numbers greater than three’ stuff, all filtered through layers of academic anecdote and institutional racism.
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throwaway_6142 818 days ago
> institutional racism

are you absolutely certain that your thoughts are not being constrained by your language?

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