Language shapes thought

Many problems in our world are not real problems, but imaginary problems stemming from language limitations. Unfortunately, to a large extent, thought is shaped by language, and where language is misleading, thought is invalid.

So, many problems, when analyzed, turn out to not exist at all, but only appear to be problems because the language makes them so.

For example, you can solve the classic chicken and egg problem like this:

Phil: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
Me: "The egg. Eggs evolved first. Fish were laying them millions of years before birds existed."
Phil: "No, I mean the chicken egg. Which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg?"
Me: "Define chicken egg. Is it an egg laid by a chicken, or an egg from which a chicken hatches?"

Notice that by simply defining the terms that are supposed to be understood, we elimiate the problem.

Next, the silent tree problem.

Phil: "If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
Me: "Yes."
Phil: "But how can it make a sound if nobody hears it?"
Me: "There is no tree. You just made it up. An imaginary tree cannot make a sound, unless it makes an imaginary sound, and if you imagine the tree falling, you can also imagine the sound."

So many of life's problems are nothing more than problems with the language. Because the language limits how you think about the problem, the solution, which would otherwise be obvious, eludes.

So, next time you find that you are facing an apparently insoluble problem, remind yourself: "There is no tree."