Functional language dissolves concepts by identifying things with their functions
Evidence
This language, which constantly imposes images, militates against the development and expression of concepts. In its immediacy and directness, it impedes conceptual thinking; thus, it impedes thinking. For the concept does not identify the thing and its function. Such identification may well be the legitimate and perhaps even the only meaning of the operational and technological concept, but operational and technological definitions are specific usages of concepts for specific purposes. Moreover, they dissolve concepts in operations and exclude the conceptual intent which is opposed to such dissolution. Prior to its operational usage, the concept denies the identification of the thing with its function; it distinguishes that which the thing is from the contingent functions of the thing in the established reality. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 399
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clarifies what Marcuse means by ‘concept’ versus operational/functional definition: the concept preserves distinction, operational usage dissolves it.
- XREF: Connects to attention/consumption economics: algorithmic feed language that frames human attention purely by its function likewise impedes conceptual thought. — connects to: Generalized meaning freed from context enables technicalization through language; Words function as performative interpretations rather than nominal labels; Systems are analyzed through complementary structure and function concepts — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 112 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Words function as performative interpretations rather than nominal labels
#expands(0.78) - Language enables meanings rather than passively carrying them
#expands(0.75) - Generalized meaning freed from context enables technicalization through language
#expands(0.72) - Systems are analyzed through complementary structure and function concepts
#complicates(0.72) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 112 - Functional fixedness blocks creative solutions requiring atypical object use
#exemplifies(0.72) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2223 - Function systems generate meaning through their relation to an environment.
#exemplifies(0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 22