Social science and human action or on hitting your head against the ceiling of language.

Abstract

Begins by examining the languages of social science and of human action, showing that they differ fundamentally in all aspects of pragmatics, syntax and semantics. The rest of the paper discusses the importance of language for visualising the world and the limitations that language imposes. Ends by considering the surrealist approach to language and regarding it as being a useful avenue for the social scientist as well as the artist. -J.Welford