Concept Association and the Natural Language
Before we begin our debunking journey, let me complete the theoretical framework to a certain extent. In Days of Disinformation I pinpointed three groups disseminating disinformation, namely, those who are paid to do so, foreigners with a naturally different perception and locals with different acquired perception; and we added that subjects of the third group, locals educated a la Western style have a disadvantage to form associations between concepts which is vital to critical thinking.
The problem is two-fold and both are related to language. In this article we shall only investigate critical thinking deficiency resulting from lack of concept association.
Whenever we learn or apprehend a new concept, our brain subconsciously links that concept to previously known ones. Starting from birth, we collect concepts by observation and by trial and error, and we build upon that constantly. However, while doing that we hardly take notice of concept association, our biggest strength, the reason that makes us superior to computers, and our weakest point, which makes us susceptible to propaganda, advertising and the like. For example, when we first learn tall and then big, our brain takes a note, forms a link, an additional bit of information: taller tends to be bigger. Then we learn the concept of heavy, and another linkage materializes: bigger tends to be heavier. The natural language, our mother-tongue becomes the soup where all these concepts operate.
Let me give a less obvious example: I do not know how many of you had a stove, a space heater if you will, in your house when you were a child. We used to have one and like with all children, several incidents occurred. I burned myself a couple of times. So, I learned not to touch it when it’s hot, the hard way. But that was not all. Even today, whenever I walk near a stove, I notice that I keep a safety distance although I know I’ll be perfectly safe even if I walk past it very close, as long as I do not touch. They why is the safety margin? Yes, an association, one that I do not remember, maybe I slipped over something and hit my head to a wall although I should not have, maybe something else. But the linkage is there: keep a safety margin for the unexpected, or random elements. So, not only I do not touch a burning stove, I walk past it by a half a metre margin. The analogy of hot stove is important and I will often refer to it in the future.
For anyone who cares, there is a lot of information to find when you make a search like “natural language” in the net. Although the way those articles study and mine is quite different but it will shed some light as to what I mean. They more or less study the role natural languages play in the development of cognitive abilities of a child, whereas I claim that it is equally important to critical thinking.
