Despite the huge regard of linguistics from the nineteenth century, there is still no unifying theory that defines and explores the origins of language in a way that is not anachronistic to several aspects of history and civilization.
There have been many attempts to define language and give meaning to what gives meaning to our everyday lives. To say that these attempts were in vain is not respectable, and to get sucked into a world of debate and difference does no intellectual any good. Language, in its simplest form, is a structure devised as a means for communication.
There is this misconception that philosophy should always be associated with complicated strains of thought that are too complex for the comprehension of ordinary minds. (If there is such a thing as an ordinary mind, which there is not.)
It is often said and debated that original thinkers like Thales of Miletus or Aristotle were the founding fathers of philosophy. That argument may be true, in the sense that these people were some of the first to attempt to create a philosophical structure as a way of living, but they were never the first philosophers.
At its deepest core, philosophy is the ability to think; to regard the nature of things. The first philosophers to have ever graced the face of the world were the first humans with the intellectual prowess of thinking. Their secrets and what they carried in their thoughts are now lost to history, but their struggle and their sacrifice may never perish under the light of civilization or the understanding that we have of philosophy; the understanding of the nature of things!
Now you may already be asking, 'what is he getting at?'
Up until now, I have tried to establish that Philosophy is the idea of thinking, and Language is a system to express those thoughts. One way or another, language and philosophy are the pillars that bring human society together. It is through these thoughts that we come to realize who we are and who we are dealing with, and it is through language that we express our ideas and understandings to the people around us.
Language is the cornerstone of civilization, and Philosophy, as what gives definition to thinking, is its backbone. Through coming to term with these two concepts and familiarizing with them can we ever truly strive towards a society that, at the very least, puts aside its differences and works for a link of common sympathy for all generations of people, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, or worldview.
by Jonathan W.