Understanding Language: Move Over Wheeler

Thoughts (there's them as would call it that) on the unreasonable effectiveness of language

John Archibald Wheeler famously remarked on the "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in describing the physical world—a phrase popularized by Eugene Wigner. Wheeler marveled at how abstract mathematical constructs, devised by human minds, so often map with uncanny precision onto the workings of nature. Why should equations and symbols, products of thought, correspond so closely to physical reality? It seems, as he put it, "unreasonably" effective.

But move over, Wheeler. If mathematics surprises us with its fit to the universe, language is an even stranger case. We use language not just to describe the world but to structure our thoughts, to frame reasoning, to argue, persuade, and speculate. And yet language often fails—spectacularly. We communicate poorly with others and even less reliably with ourselves. Sometimes language works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s a game of words detached from any grasp of reality.

We try to reason, and reasoning emerges as language. You can call it abductive reasoning if you like. It’s not algorithmic, as far as we know. It’s not deterministic, as far as we can tell. Often it’s wrong—wildly so. Interpretations of the same phenomenon abound. They can’t all be correct where they differ and contradict. And where they can’t be reconciled, they can’t all be right. Though none of them may be.

Still, we use language to couch thought. Whether we think with language isn’t even clear. But language emerges. A myriad of words, phrases, and expressions arise, often offering different forms for what we imagine is the same idea. Presumably, something prior happens before the words—some process, subconscious or otherwise.

Move over, Wheeler. The unreasonable effectiveness of language at describing the world often collapses under scrutiny. Every day, we argue as if we know that which may be fundamentally unknowable. And we use language—the tool that both illuminates and obscures—to do it.