Creating Reality Through Language

In the pages of Timaeus, we encounter Plato, Socrates’ great disciple and Aristotle’s teacher, evoking a mystical figure, the architect who shapes the material world as a reflection of the perfect realm of ideas. This creator is known as the Demiurge. In certain traditions, such as Gnosticism, his role in creation and in human suffering is cast in far more dramatic tones. Yet today, I invite you to remain within the Platonic philosophy, grounded in the Socratic and thus Platonic practice of maieutics: the art of drawing truth forth.

The creative Demiurge fashions matter by imprinting it with form. When we encounter the material world, we must describe it in order to understand our position within existence. From that encounter, the "I" and the "that" emerge. This "I" and this "that" interpret themselves and the world around them through a single instrument. That instrument is language.

You might assume that language exists merely to communicate your ideas to others. Yet, in truth, language does not operate as a bridge; rather, it serves as a portrait of reality. If it were a perfect bridge, it would be exact, and subjectivity would not plague us, for the message would always reach its receiver intact. But that is not what happens, is it? Therefore, language is a descriptive tool, one that allows us to forge consensus with our fellow beings, and through that shared understanding, to move collectively toward a common purpose.

Why am I so certain that language is a description of reality?

Let us look closely at its structure. Zoom in, and words appear as the foundational blocks of meaning. Zoom in again, and each word reveals itself as a social agreement (a language) to describe an entity or the relation between entities through a phoneme, rendered into symbols (letters) so that we may speak and write.

Allow me to offer a simple example of a universal phoneme that describes the bond between two human beings.

In a Mafalda comic strip, her mother scolds her for not cleaning her room and refusing to eat her soup. Mafalda, irritated, questions why she should obey her, since she is the one making the soup. Her mother, exasperated, replies with the eternal maternal phrase: “Because I am your mother, Mafalda.” To which Mafalda answers, “As far as I know, we graduated on the same day.”

Beyond the humor lies something profound: the word "mama" describes the primal relationship between a child and the one from whom it will feed through the act of suckling, producing the sound ma, ma, ma. This phoneme embodies the mother-child bond, which is why this word sounds nearly identical across the languages of the world.

I do not unfold this reflection to waste your time, dear reader. I wish for you to observe how phonemes give rise to words, words describe reality, and through those descriptions we construct the shared consensus we call society. This is why we need not quarrel endlessly over the naming of things. Language is the social covenant through which we portray reality.

If you have walked with me this far, allow me to pass you the central insight of this essay: Language is a consensual description of reality, and upon it we build the relationship between our “I” and the “that,” shaping the constant flow of our actions and thoughts.

If this resonates with you, and its logic is difficult to deny, then let me pose a final question: Why have you not used language as a cultural instrument, as a means of collective mental alignment for the people who work with you?

If you are still with me, I invite you to read the next edition. And should you wish to hear the full lecture on the creation of reality through language, I would be delighted to meet you.