A History of Language Insufficiency

In this personal reflection, the author introduces the Language Insufficiency Hypothesis, a concept suggesting that human communication often fails because our words cannot support the heavy social and legal burdens we place upon them. Drawing from a lifelong perspective as an outsider, the writer challenges the validity of subjective legal terms like fairness and reasonableness, arguing that these "weasel words" mask deep-seated ontological disagreements. The text posits that people frequently operate under a false illusion of agreement because their individual interpretations of a single word may overlap only slightly. Ultimately, the author suggests that when linguistic meaning breaks down at these fundamental levels, institutional power and authority inevitably step in to resolve the resulting conflicts. This work serves as a critique of the civic myths that assume shared understanding is always possible through more education or context. 👉 https://philosophics.blog/2025/12/20/a-history-of-language-insufficiency/