Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Wanted: Tesseract. One Hypothesis on Languages, Cultures, and Ethics for Mind, Brain, and Education

Wanted: Tesseract. One Hypothesis on Languages, Cultures, and Ethics for Mind, Brain, and Education For potential consideration by the Mind, Brain, and Education community, here is a modest but provocative hypothesis regarding the relationships between acquisition of languages, awareness of cultures, and development of ethics in human beings. Starting from the basic idea according to which “a fish does not know what water is,” and using both various literature sources and my personal experience of linguistic/cultural diversity, I postulate, using the mathematical metaphor of the “tesseract,” that mastery of several languages is not only essential to developing cultural awareness but also a key to (partial) access to global awareness. This might open research avenues for colleagues interested in some of these fields, or in all of them; if sound neuroscientific work, possibly combined with quantitative studies, proves the hypothesis right, then we may hope to take one small step toward more tolerance: yet another “giant leap for mankind”? Let us dream—it is not forbidden yet. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Mind, Brain, and Education Wiley

Wanted: Tesseract. One Hypothesis on Languages, Cultures, and Ethics for Mind, Brain, and Education

Della Chiesa, Bruno
Mind, Brain, and Education , Volume 4 (3) – Sep 1, 2010
Download PDF
14 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/wanted-tesseract-one-hypothesis-on-languages-cultures-and-ethics-for-HgvJnBVGJQ
Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2010 the Author. Journal Compilation © 2010 International Mind, Brain, and Education Society and Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
ISSN
1751-2271
eISSN
1751-228X
DOI
10.1111/j.1751-228X.2010.01092.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

For potential consideration by the Mind, Brain, and Education community, here is a modest but provocative hypothesis regarding the relationships between acquisition of languages, awareness of cultures, and development of ethics in human beings. Starting from the basic idea according to which “a fish does not know what water is,” and using both various literature sources and my personal experience of linguistic/cultural diversity, I postulate, using the mathematical metaphor of the “tesseract,” that mastery of several languages is not only essential to developing cultural awareness but also a key to (partial) access to global awareness. This might open research avenues for colleagues interested in some of these fields, or in all of them; if sound neuroscientific work, possibly combined with quantitative studies, proves the hypothesis right, then we may hope to take one small step toward more tolerance: yet another “giant leap for mankind”? Let us dream—it is not forbidden yet.

Journal

Mind, Brain, and Education – Wiley

Published: Sep 1, 2010

References

  • D’une pierre trois coups
    Della Chiesa, Della Chiesa
  • Long live lifelong brain plasticity!
    Della Chiesa, Della Chiesa
  • “Facilis descensus Averni”: Mind, brain, education, and ethics: Highway to hell, stairway to heaven, or passing dead end?
    Della Chiesa, Della Chiesa
  • How many brains does it take to build a new light? Knowledge management challenges of a transdiciplinary project.
    Della Chiesa, Della Chiesa; Christoph, Christoph; Hinton, Hinton
  • Why mind, brain, and education? Why now?
    Fischer, Fischer; Daniel, Daniel; Immordino‐Yang, Immordino‐Yang; Stern, Stern; Battro, Battro; Koizumi, Koizumi
  • An education grounded in biology: Interdisciplinary and ethical considerations.
    Gardner, Gardner
  • Research schools. Grounding in educational practice.
    Hinton, Hinton; Fischer, Fischer
  • A practical approach for transdiciplinary studies in the 21st century.
    Koizumi, Koizumi
  • On denoting.
    Russell, Russell
  • Brains in jars. The problem of language in neuroscientific research.
    Scott, Scott; Curran, Curran