Language- A Lovely Medium

LANGUAGE IS THE MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION TO RELATE AND TO UNDERSTAND THE OTHER (WORLD, GOD AND HUMAN BEING) FOR AN AUTHENTIC LIFE

According to the philosophy of Existentialism, Human Being is thrown into the world. As a being who is thrown into the world, humans need to act. They act primarily towards searching for an identity through authentic life. Authentic life for human beings is a conscious and continuous that springs from relationship with and understanding of the other. In this pilgrimage towards authenticity, language becomes a pathway that determines our experience and influences the way we live and relate and understand a reality.

Language distinguishes human beings as human beings. It is more true to say that language makes them than we make the language. This way, as Heidegger says, language is the very essence and nature of human beings. In possessing language as fundamental dimension and direction of their existence, human beings primarily describe, and capture every reality within their capacity, through thought, imagination, interpretation, and conceptualization toward the solution of the problems they meet with in their lives. Human being is in a world where authentic life would be difficult without language. Language by its very nature designed for communication. It shapes human thinking, colouring human knowledge and thus operates the world.

Authentic Relationship and understanding require dialogical openness in which beings are opened to the other to facilitate the process of communication. Every relationship with reality presupposes knowledge of that reality. Every understanding of reality presupposes an interpretation. Knowledge-Interpretation and Interpretation-Knowledge are in language as they have their foundation in the language.

In the present existential scenario of rapid change and evolution, humans find it difficult to live an authentic life. This human quandary is accentuated by the ambiguity of human communication, which can be distorting and violent and on the one hand, therapeutic and transformative, on the other. Our human task as beings of language, in journey towards authenticity, is to relate and understand the other.

Language is a symbol that helps human being to conceptualize thought through articulated speech, sign and touch that promote the process of communication between the sender and the receiver. Inevitably this leads to I-It relationship and when strong to I-Thou relationship. It further leads to I-It understanding with/of every reality and when sturdy to I-Thou understanding for an authentic life with the Other.