the stuff of thought

• steven pinker kitabi. normalde bir uclemenin (the language instinct, words and rules ve the stuff of thought) son kitabi imis, biz sonuncusundan dalmisiz olaya. neyse artik, yine de bagimsiz olarak okunabiliyor. dilin dogasi hakkinda, bol tespitli ve bol mizahli bir calisma bu. daha dogrusu, 'dil araciligiyla insan dogasina atilan bakislari' ihtiva ediyor, tam isminden de gorebilecegimiz gibi ('the stuff of thought: language as a window into human nature').
  
  hofstadter tadi verdigini soyleyebiliriz, ki zaten hofstadter de ovmus bayagi "kognitif saynsi public'e getiriyor." deyu (sevdigimiz kitap arkasi yazilarindan). benim en cok hosuma giden, disiplinli bir siniflandirma silsilesini takip etmesi. kitap boyunca duzenli bir sekilde 'cesitleri' izliyorsunuz. metaforundan tut sosyal iliskilerin yapilarina; akici bir siniflandirma tablosu var. dilin kullanimiyla nedenselligin baglantisi, insan diyaloglarinin 'ardindaki' donguler (he knows that she knows that he knows), kendini "allah korusun" demekten alikoyamayan materyalist (allah diyen aslan) gibi altbasliklar ile goz dolduruyor kitap.
  
  isimdeki 'stuff' detayi da gondermeli diye dusunuyorum (bkz: diye dusunuyorum diye biten cumleler kurmak).
  
  eskiden olsa alintilar araciligiyla kendi nacizane fikirlerimi de aktarirdim ama artik
  yaslandik. :) yine de "strong ai be!" diyen yanimiz bir gun gaza gelirse buralara tekrar
  ugrariz. simdilik onun yerine metamagical themas oncesi the stuff of thought'tan duz alintilar ile yetiniyorum. selamlar.
  
  (words and worlds, sf. 21)
  "... the passenger was unimpressed. he asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear, "do you have any idea who i am?" without hesitating, the gate agent smiled and grabbed her public address microphone. "may i have your attention, please?" she began, her voice bellowing through the terminal. "we have a passenger here at the gate <caps lock> who does not know who he is </caps lock>. if anyone can help him find his identity, please come to the gate." with the folks behind him laughing hysterically, the man glared at the agent, gritted his teeth and swore, "[expletive] you!" without flinching, she smiled and said, "i'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to stand in line for that too.""
  
  (cleaving the air, sf. 177)
  "specifying a shape can require as many pieces of information as the shape has facets, nooks, and crannies."
  (buradda nook kelimesini isaretlemisim sadece aslinda, herhalde "guzel kelime bro." diye)
  
  (the seven words you can't say on television, sf. 358)
  "this place is a real clusterfuck ["disorganized situation", army]"
  (burada da battlestar galactica-starship troopers havasi var, clusterfuck tabiri komikmis)
  
  (games people play, sf. 377)
  "grice fleshed out the cooperative principle in four conversational "maxims," which are commandments that people tacitly follow (or should follow) to further the conversation efficiently:
  
  quantity:
  * say no less than the conversation requires.
  * say no more than the conversation requires.
  quality:
  * don't say what you believe to be false.
  * don't say things for which you lack evidence.
  manner:
  * don't be obscure.
  * don't be ambiguous.
  * be brief.
  * be orderly.
  relevance:
  * be relevant."
  (burayi ozlu sozler kabilinden almamakta fayda var, ki pinker da bu maksimlerin ihlal
  edildigi durumlardan da dem vuruyordu diye hatirliyorum. ben "nice clustering bro!" diye not etmistim)
  
  (games people play, sf. 382)
  "questioning rather than commanding: will you lend me your car?
  expressing pessimism: i don't suppose you might close the window.
  hedging the request: close the door, if you can.
  minimizing the imposition: i just want to borrow a little bit of paper.
  hesitating: can i, uh, borrow your bicycle?
  acknowledging the impingement: i'm sure you're busy, but...
  indicating reluctance: i normally wouldn't ask, but...
  apologizing: i'm sorrry to bother you, but...
  impersonalizing: smoking is not permitted.
  acknowledging a debt: i'd be eternally grateful if you would..."
  
  (games people play, sf. 387)
  "typical japanese business meeting:
  first businessman: hello, sir.
  second businessman: hello, sir.
  first businessman: i am sorry.
  second businessman: i am extremely sorry.
  first businessman: i cannot stand myself.
  second businessman: i am swamp scum.
  first businessman: i am toenail dirt.
  second businessman: i should be put to death.
  
  typical american businesss meeting:
  first businessman: bob!
  second businessman: ed!
  first businessman: how they hangin'?
  second businessman: one lower than the other!
  first businessman: har!
  second businessman: listen, about those r-243-j's, the best we can do for you is $3.80 a unit.
  first businessman: my ass, bob.
  second businessman: har!
  
  some cultures are famous for how little call they have for deferential politeness. one of them is israel, whose native-born citizens are called sabras, the hebrew word for an edible cactus that is said to be prickly on the outside and sweet on the inside. another is identified in the joke in which four people are walking down the street: a saudi arabian, a russian, a north korean and a new yorker. a reporter rushes up to them and says, "excuse me, can i get your opinion of the meat shortage?" the saudi arabian says, "shortage--what's a shortage?" the russian says, "meat--what's meat?" the north korean says "opinion--what's an opinion?" the new yorker says, "excuse me--what's excuse me?""
  (bkz: sozlukte fikra anlatmak)
  
  (games people play, sf. 397)
  "the revision may be a good policy for relations betweeen the sexes, but when it comes to diplomacy, the original stands. in an op-ed entitled "the language of diplomacy," michael langan, a former american treasury official, recounts:
  
  at one point in my federal government career, i wrote up an explanation of a complicated matter in what i considered an extremely clear, cogent manner. the senior government official to whom i reported read it carefully, ruminating and adjusting his glasses as he read. then he looked up at me and said, "this isn't any good. i understand it completely. take it back and muddy it up. i want the statement to be interpreted two or three ways." the resulting ambiguity enabled some compromise between competing governmental interests."
  
  (games people play, sf. 404)
  "the very act of delineating perquisites and obligations in words undermine the nature of the emotional (and in their minds physical) fusion that allows them to share instinctively, without concern for who takes what and who gets what."
  
  (games people play, sf. 405)
  "authority ranking, like communal sharing, is signaled in humans not primarily through words but by co-opting perceptual faculties tailored to another domain of life. in the case of communality it was intuitive biology; in the case of authority it is intuitive physics, namely, kantian categories of space, time, substance and force explored in chapter 4. the ranking of people in a dominance hierarchy is usually symbolized as an ordering in time, space, size, or strength. dominant individuals (chiefs, presidents, priests, shamans, generals) strut ahead of their subordinates, enter and exit first, stand taller (often on platforms and balconies), look bigger (with the help of hats, helmets and headdresses), are bigger (leaders, including american presidents tend to be taller than the runners-up), are depicted bigger (in outsize
  images and statues), and have bigger offices, palaces, and monuments. hundreds of metaphors express this equivalence, like first among equals (time), strongman (force), big shot (size), and top dog (position in space)."
  
  (escaping the cave, sf. 433)
  "in these pages, i have tried to lay out the major kinds of thoughts, feelings, and social relationships that go into the meaning and use of language. are they shadows on the wall of a cave in which our minds are forever trapped? many of the book's discussions raise this fear, because they suggest that the machinery of conceptual semantics makes us permanently vulnerable to fallacies in reasoning and to corruption in our institutions."
  
  (escaping the cave, sf. 435)
  "scientific findings that seem to challenge authority or threaten social solidarity, from copernician astronomy to evolutionary biology, have been shushed as if they were social faux pas, or condemned as if they were personal betrayals."
  (hmm (cok onemli yorumum))
  
  (escaping the cave, sf. 435)
  "even with our infirmities, we have managed to achieve the freedom of a liberal democracy, the wealth of a technological economy, and the truths of modern science."