Windows on Humanity

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”

- John Stuart Mill in "On Liberty" (1859)

Some of my own ideas that were raised by the quote:

A fatal and all too common mistake in is to presuppose that others have access to the same information as we have. We all too often have the illusion that they will base their views on similar facts and ideas as we are.
Unfortunately, this process can happen quite automatically as we will look at others through our own mind. The main yardstick that we use to evaluate other people and their ideas are our own ideas.

However, this situation will often lead to the idea that other people are acting as they are because of some kind of willful distortion of the facts. However, all too often the real reason is that other people have been learning a different set of facts.
A very human tendency to self-censure things that one does say or write about the ideas of one’s friends will create dangerous echo-chambers for ideas. The real danger is that discussions that lack all dissent will amplify ideas until they become absurd or even dangerous.

It is a natural tendency of all humans to enjoy consensus and see it as a normal situation. A person who disturbs consensus is all too easily seen as a nuisance. However, most things in life can be seen from different angles and in a different light. Dissident is, in fact, one of the most important assets that an open society and democracy in general need to survive in the long run.
Even the most benevolent and useful ideas can turn into monsters if they are left to grow for a too long time in an echo-chamber that totally lacks any dissenting voices. The phenomena is most prevalent among the totalitarian ideologies. However, any idea or ideology can grow to grotesque forms if its followers do not allow any kind of critical voices to be heard.

(This piece was refurbished at 17th of December, 2012)

John Stuart Mill is in Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/jsmillphilosopher

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill
"John Stuart Mill, FRSE (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873) was a British philosopher, political economist and civil servant. He was an influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy. He has been called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century".

We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves."

- John Locke in "Essay on the Human Understanding", III. 10.

My own thoughts on the issue of language:

Words are commonly agreed descriptions of reality. Words can change quite summarily. However,  reality is normally not changed when these descriptions change. Words are attached to things and ideas by humans. Of course, the way how we see reality can be changed by these descriptions that we call words. However, changes in language can change the way we see things even in a major way.
Reality remains unchanged by these changes in language. This is true as long as we do not change our actual behavior because of these changes. Only real actions can change reality. Naturally, these actions are always based on how we see the world. Language plays a crucial role on how we form our view of reality.

The individual perceptions or even some perception-chancing ideas that have overwhelming following on a national or international level do not change the reality or the way how the world actually is formed. Language is just a common agreement of how to describe things, actions and ideas. Not all members of a society need to agree to follow these agreements.
However, just to be understood by others one needs to follow at least some of the rules that are often set by the preceding generations. People do invent new words. These new words can also become generally accepted if they satisfy an existing need for a new word.

If language does restrict the way people see the world, only view of it is restricted, but the reality remains the unchanged for many others. This is true as long as a person is not able to convince others that they should see the reality in similar restricted way as he does.
Distorting the view of reality that people have with the use of language is quite possible. In fact, it is one of the methods of how the religions do work their 'miracles'. People can fool their senses. They can fool also others not to believe in their senses and to believe in, for example, fantastic supernatural ideas. Also taking things to unneeded level of abstraction can make things look strange and shadowy. This can be true, even if understanding reality can be quite simple.

“Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.“

- Ralph Waldo Emerson in “Letters and Social Aims (1876)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_locke
"John Locke FRS ( /ˈlɒk/; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704), widely known as the Father of Classical Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to a social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence."