Reason with Science

Can language describe reality? with Nick Enfield

01 Oct 2022

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This episode is with Nick Enfield. He is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. Nick's research on language, culture, cognition and social life is based on long term field work in mainland Southeast Asia, especially Laos. His books include Natural Causes of Language, Distributed Agency, and How We Talk. His latest book is 'Language vs Reality: Why language is good for lawyers and bad for scientists' In this conversation we talk about evolution of language and How well it can describe reality?, Can language nudge our thoughts?, Maths as a language, evolution of human reason and rationality. Guest info: Website: http://nickenfield.org/ Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZZ6woWgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra Twitter: https://twitter.com/njenfield?s=20&t=rt6kyVo-IRUsdRu1Q4_W7g Episode links: Website: https://www.reasonwithscience.com/home/can-language-describe-reality-with-nick-enfield Youtube: https://youtu.be/lWzE55QeVDc Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Hc9rPQQKHeboy2TINF0ik?si=ifgkA1KxSoCGM4qS0U4iqQ Apple podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/reason-with-science/407cd478-4271-4319-8318-fc378d4e7ccb/episode/can-language-describe-reality-with-nick-enfield/dc89efc0-0bf4-4e35-85c2-f740fae73591 Google podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9iMjMyNDZlOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/M2YyNTFjOTktNzZjMy00Y2Q3LWFhOTAtYzNhOGIzZmI0NDg2?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwj4w-iF0L76AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ Follow Reason with Science: Website: https://www.reasonwithscience.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/reasonwithscience Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qFLGsPWjL4GAGidmF2nKh Apple podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reason-with-science/id1641776894 Google podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9iMjMyNDZlOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw Timestamps: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:07 What is language? 00:04:01 When does a communication system becomes a language? 00:08:02 How language got started? 00:13:31 Do sapiens have an advantage which helped us to start a language? 00:17:30 Language is too blunt for scientists and good for lawyers 00:23:40 We simplify the complexity of the world 00:28:23 Why language was evolved? 00:30:52 On Donald Hoffman's work 00:35:36 Brute reality and social reality 00:36:59 Yuval Harrari's imagined reality 00:40:38 Power of all the languages 00:44:29 Language in an AI society 00:47:25 Complexity of a language 00:56:18 Can complexity of a language affect psychology? 01:00:08 Sapira-Whorf hypothesis 01:04:07 Co-evolution and evolution of languages 01:08:05 Desmond Morris' work on neoteny 01:10:54 Purpose of a language 01:16:04 Rationality, reasoning and language 01:22:35 Truth and rationality 01:27:45 Fighting misinformation 01:30:19 Confirmation bias 01:31:55 Should we care if a language is dying? 01:38:06 Is mathematics a language? 01:44:26 Thank you! #reasonwithscience #languages #evolution

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13:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

01 Jan 1970

Fin de Semana

10:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

01 Jan 1970

Fin de Semana

12:00H | 20 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

01 Jan 1970

Fin de Semana

2ª PARTE | 06 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

3ª PARTE | 22 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

3ª PARTE | 04 MAR 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

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Reason with Science

Can language describe reality? with Nick Enfield

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Other recent transcribed episodes

13:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

10:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

12:00H | 20 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

2ª PARTE | 06 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

3ª PARTE | 22 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

3ª PARTE | 04 MAR 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

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