We Are Both the Narrators and the Audience of the Tale of Knowledge, Concepts, and Language
To us, knowledge resembles a tale, because we cannot understand new information without an internal framework. If we cannot process information that does not fit into our existing schemas, we must admit that all knowledge is simplified stories. Like children trying to comprehend the universe, we resort to simplification, reduction, and fabrication.
The Tale of the Tale: Conceptual Analysis
Just as cells come together to form organisms, people come together to create communities and societies. This might be similar to how cells do not grow infinitely due to diffusion limitations in oxygen transport. So how does a cell grow? By joining with other cells to become part of a larger organism. Likewise, individuals are not only the sum of millions of cells, but also components of millions-strong societies.
Words Have Also Been Assigned Roles
As people began living together, their need for communication grew. They started assigning sounds to refer to concrete objects. Later, they assigned sounds to abstract concepts—representing their groups, existence, and life. This is where philosophy comes into play. Abstract institutions, concepts, and issues constitute philosophy as a conceptual effort, the discussion of what humanity has added beyond mere animal existence.
As humanity evolved, concrete and abstract words intertwined. Abstract concepts—which are not easily imagined—began to be perceived as real. Misunderstandings happen more frequently with abstract terms, and we can never fully comprehend them. Worse still, we often assume we understand them. When someone speaks about abstract matters or intangible entities, we tend to believe them and get carried away. This is how deception becomes possible: words, like a devil’s invention, naturally seem truthful.
We Have Physical, Biological, and Social Cultures
Humans are cultural beings. Our biological body is inherently given, but if we have a unique autonomous identity, it must be something beyond biology. To be cultural is to create institutions, structures, and macro-organisms through cooperation and accumulation of knowledge.
Being institutionalized requires believing in each other and in concepts. Consensus means acting as if something is real, leading us to become what we are not. Culture does not permit questioning consensus-based knowledge, because tradition, which is both oral and intuitive, is shaped through immediate actions. Tradition, fiction, and culture make us sensitive to each other and attached to values. We believe in one another and therefore exclude those who do not believe in us.
Signs Come from Us, but What They Represent Is External
By pointing to external things, we have discovered mathematics and knowledge. The signs we use originate from humans, but what they represent comes from the external world. These signs accumulate, forming social culture, and when we say “human”, we often mean the species that assigns such symbols. Humans became powerful and dominant through collaborative meaning-making and memory. Naming things is the first step, and as different signs combine, they become more complex.
Language both defines us and distinguishes us from everything else. It marks our engagement in activities beyond mere survival. If we have a true distinction in nature, it is language. Through language, we move beyond being individual components and become social and collective beings. Instead of being a meteor, we become a star; instead of a grain of sand, we become part of a construction. Yet, we have sacrificed parts of our physical and biological culture in favor of societal development. This comes with side effects:
- Becoming obsessed with concepts
- Being shaped by cultural constructs rather than seeking truth
- Creating false representations that contradict individual and collective realities
Transitioning from a biological existence to an intensely social one has contradicted our self-serving nature, leading to a tragicomic life.
Fabrication Is Not Bad—We Only Call Certain Fabrications Bad
Why do we create signs? Although words like fabrication, play, or fiction often carry negative connotations in the pursuit of knowledge, they are the foundations of life, existence, and possibility at physical, biological, and social levels. We create our own reference systems, and if we align them well with biological and physical culture, we establish civilization.
We should remember that most of work, entertainment, and even the universe itself consists of fabrication, formation, and transformation.
