In George Orwell’s most famous book 1984, the rulers of Oceania have imposed a new, hyper-controlled language on the population. The language is called Newspeak, and it’s not only the language they use to communicate with each other, but the language they think in.
Newspeak was designed to restrict the reasoning and limit the imaginations of the citizens of Oceania, rendering them incapable of exploring certain concepts and ensuring their self-preserving support for The State.
It’s crucial to note that their inability to consider these concepts is not due only to lacking names for them, but also the movements of logic beneath the thoughts that they are capable of that block them reaching these forbidden concepts as a natural consequence of any critical thinking.
This is a pretty accurate encapsulation of what I mean when I talk about languages of thinking. It’s less about the words and symbols we use to think in, and more about the function and direction of our thinking in general.
Some years ago, I decided to confront any potential contradictions in my own thinking in order to overcome them. At first, I got hung up on the kinds of words I was using to define my concepts, and that didn’t lead to much further insight or resolution at all. In fact, it just made an even bigger mess of…
