Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T01:17:20.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Essay on the Relativity of Categories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

L. von Bertalanffy
L. von Bertalanffy*
Affiliation:
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Among recent developments in the anthropological sciences, hardly any have found so much attention and led to so much controversy as have the views advanced by the late Benjamin Whorf.

The hypothesis offered by Whorf is,

“that the commonly held belief that the cognitive processes of all human beings possess a common logical structure which operates prior to and independently of communication through language, is erroneous. It is Whorf's view that the linguistic patterns themselves determine what the individual perceives in this world and how he thinks about it. Since these patterns vary widely, the modes of thinking and perceiving in groups utilizing different linguistic systems will result in basically different world views” (Fearing, 1954).

“We are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar. … We cut up and organize the spread and flow of events as we do largely because, through our mother tongue, we are parties to an agreement to do so, not because nature itself is segmented in exactly that way for all to see” (Whorf, 1952, p. 21)

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , October 1955 , pp. 243 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1955

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allesch, G. J. von, Zur Nichteuklidischen Struktur des phänomenalen Raumes. Jena: Fischer. 1931.Google Scholar
Anschütz, G., Psychologie. Hamburg: Meiner. 1953.Google Scholar
Ashby, W. R., Can a Mechanical Chess-Player outplay its Designer. Brit. J. Philos. Sci. 3, 44, 1952.10.1093/bjps/III.9.44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Backman, G., Lebensdauer und Entwicklung. Roux' Archiv 140, 90, 1940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bavink, B., Ergebnisse und Probleme der Naturwissenschaften. 9th ed. Zürich: Hirzel. 1949.Google Scholar
Bertalanffy, L. von, Einführung in Spengler's Werk. Literaturblatl d. Koeln. Zeitung, May 1924; (ed.), Nikolaus von Kues. München: Müller, G. 1928; Das Gefüge des Lebens. Leipzig: Teubner. 1937; Probleme einer dynamischen Morphologie. Biologia Generalis 15, 1, 1941; Theoretische Biologie. 2nd vol.: Stoffwechsel, Wachstum. 2nd ed. Bern: Francke. 1951; Philosophy of Science in Scientific Education. Sci. Monthly 77, 233, 1953; and Deutsch, K. W., Discussion in: Proc. 7th Conference on the Unified Theory of Human Nature, ed. by Grinker, R. Chicago: Michael Reese Hospital (mimeograph). 1954; A Biologist Looks at Human Nature. Sei. Monthly. In press.Google Scholar
Brody, S., Relativity of Physiological Time and Physiological Weight. Growth 1, 60, 1937.Google Scholar
Fearing, F., An Examination of the Conceptions of Benjamin Whorf in the Light of Theories of Perception and Cognition. Language in Culture, ed. by H. Hoijer. Amer. Anthropologist 56, Memoir No. 79, 47, 1954.Google Scholar
Hoagland, H., Consciousness and the Chemistry of Time. Transactions of the 1st Conference, ed. by Abramson, H. A., 164. New York: J. Macy Foundation. 1951.Google Scholar
Hoijer, H. (ed.), Language in Culture. Amer. Anthropologist 56, Memoir No. 79, 1954.Google Scholar
Humboldt, W. von, Gesammelte Schriften. vol. VII, pt. 1. Berlin: Preuss. Akademie.Google Scholar
Huxley, A., The Doors of Perception. New York: Harper. 1954.Google Scholar
Kalmus, H., Über die Natur des Zeitgedächtnisses der Bienen. Zeitschr. vergl. Physiol. 20, 405, 1934.10.1007/BF00339645CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kluckhohn, Cl., Culture and Behavior. Handbook of Social Psychology, ed. by Lindzey, G. Vol. 2, Chapter 25, 921. Cambridge (Mass.): Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1954.Google Scholar
Kluckhohn, Cl., and Leighton, D., The Navaho. Ch. 8. The Tongue of the People. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard U. Press. 1951.Google Scholar
La Barre, W., The Human Animal. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press. 1954.Google Scholar
Lecomte du Noüy, P., Biological Time. New York: Macmillan. 1937.Google Scholar
Lorenz, K., Die angeborenen Formen möglicher Erfahrung. Zeitschr. Tierpsychologie 5, 235, 1943.Google Scholar
Neumann, J. von, The General and Logical Theory of Automata. Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior, ed. by L. A. Jeffres, 1. New York: Wiley, 1951.Google Scholar
Prigogine, I., Étude Thermodynamique des Phénomènes irréversibles. Paris: Dunod. 1947.Google Scholar
Riegl, A., Die spälrömische Kunstindustrie, nach den Funden in Österreich-Ungarn. Wien: Hof- und Staatsdruckerei. 1901.Google Scholar
Schaxel, J., Grundzüge der Theorienbildung in der Biologie. 2nd ed. Jena: Fischer. 1923.Google Scholar
Skramlik, E. von, Die Grundlagen der haptischen Geometrie. Naturwissenschaften 22, 601, 1934.10.1007/BF01495310CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spengler, O., Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Vol. I. München: Beck. 1922.Google Scholar
Stein-Beling, J. von, Über das Zeitgedächtnis bei Tieren. Biol. Rev. 10, 18, 1935.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toynbee, A. J., A Study of History. Vol. IX. London, New York: Oxford U. Press. 1954.Google Scholar
Uexküll, J. von, Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere. 2nd ed. Berlin: Springer. 1920; Theoretische Biologie. 2nd ed. Berlin: Springer. 1929; and Kriszat, G., Streifzüge durch die Umwelten von Tieren und Menschen. Berlin: Springer. 1934.Google Scholar
Wahl, O., Neue Untersuchungen über das Zeitgedächtnis der Tiere. Zeitschr. vergl. Physiol. 16, 529, 1932.10.1007/BF00338333CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whatmough, J., Review of A. G. N. Flew (editor), Logic and Language (Second Series). Classical Philology 50, 67, 1955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whorf, B. L., Collected Papers on Metalinguistics. Washington, D. C: Foreign Service Institute, Department of State. 1952.Google Scholar
Worringer, W., Abstraktion und Einfühlung. München: Piper. 1908; Formprobleme der Gotik. München: Piper. 1911.Google Scholar