“Concerning Language” is a fast-paced and hilarious comedic act in which Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie raise questions that are at the heart of philosophical investigation of language. Is sophistic rhetoric effective in every language? How does language shape our perception of reality? Do we use language as a tool or does language exercise agency over us?
The “Concerning Language” video can be used in different modules and paired with a number of philosophical texts. I use it when teaching Plato’s dialogues to open the discussion about the relationship between language and emotions and to solicit the students’ insights into the reasons why propagandistic and sophistical speeches succeed in shaping the public opinion.
In this context, the video allows us to bring Plato’s presentation of sophistry and rhetoric in the Republic, the Apology, and the Gorgias to our contemporary concern with cultural profiling and marginalization.
This applied analysis of Plato’s ideas resonates with the opening question in the comedic exchange between Fry and Laurie, which is: Are some languages more resistant to incendiary demagoguery than others? A discussion of the rhetorical power of language leads us to assess the various ways in which speech can be used to control certain aspects of our lives. The dominant language in any country aids in excluding the voices, heritage, and views of the minorities or disenfranchised groups. This leads to a no less pressing concern, which is the power of the dominant narrative – be it political, social, or academic – to silence other voices that do not conform to the status quo.
The second half of the video playfully poses the question of universals and the theory of forms. The scene fits form to content when Stephen Fry dotes at Hugh Laurie in the discussion of beauty and the difference between being beautiful and beauty itself. In a brief, but brilliant moment of comedic acting, Laurie peeks behind the couch in an attempt to answer Fry’s question about the likely place where the substance – beauty itself – must exist. Plato’s Phaedrus, Symposium, and Hippias Major are the locus classicus for this search for beauty.
The two parts of the video serve as comedic bookends to the study of Plato.
It is also language that allows us to mitigate the effects of disinformation and arrive at the truth. The video captures the double-pronged power of language – to cover and to reveal the truth. In the classes I teach, the conceptual richness of “Concerning Language” allows me to first establish that language has this double-sided nature and then, also, to push past simplistic binaries. I engage the students in a discussion of the rich playfulness of language as we assess the reasons why limericks, puns, jokes, and linguistic puzzles are not only enjoyable and entertaining but are also able to recast our view of a given situation or idea.
I also rely on “Concerning Language” when I teach modules on Wittgenstein, AI, as well as emerging philosophies that address the question of the role of language and dominant narratives as tools of social and political control, oppression, and marginalization. Stephen Fry’s quick-witted presentation of a grammatically correct and original sentence that expresses recognizable concepts, but contains little meaning raises the question of whether programs, robots, AI, and machines are capable of understanding linguistic input and output. Classical AI problems such as the Chinese room and the Turing test serve as the philosophical basis of this analysis. I use the connection between language and technology to guide the students in their assessment of the way in which technology serves as a tool of packaging information and influencing our ideas.
Possible Readings:
Plato Republic, Gorgias, Apology, Symposium, Phaedrus, Hippias Major.
Derrida, Jacques. “Ousia and Gramme: Note on a Note from Being and Time.”
Heidegger, Martin. Building, Dwelling, Thinking.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations.
Searle, John. “Minds, Brains, and Programs.”
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
This section of the Blog of APA is designed to share pedagogical approaches to using humorous video clips for teaching philosophy. Humor, when used appropriately, has empirically been shown to correlate with higher retention rates. If you are interested in contributing to this series, please email the Series Editor, William A. B. Parkhurst, at parkhurst1@usf.edu.
Marina Marren
Marina Marren currently teaches at the University of Oregon. Her publications feature research on ancient philosophy, questions concerning psychology, ethics, pedagogy, and German thought.
