Where language fails us | Kehinde Andrews, John McWhorter and Laurie Ann Paul

Is language capable of communicating experience?

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We think sharing experience is essential to being human. At an individual level, we share experiences to get to know others and understand them. Yet from the taste of an apple to giving birth, we know we cannot fully describe the experience to someone who has not already had it. Many now also maintain that it is impossible to communicate the experience of discrimination, and other cultures can only be understood by those who have experienced it. But even if it remains an impossible task - for language to truly bridge our separate realities - should it nevertheless remain something that is continually strived for?

Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University Kehinde Andrews, linguist and Associate Professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University John McWhorter, and Professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Yale University Laurie Ann Paul discuss whether or not language is capable of communicating lived experience. Mary-Jane Rubenstein hosts. 

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