Is language key to understanding Chemistry?

While exploring more about the ways of knowledge in TOK class, my partner and I came to a suggestion that language can be a key aspect in understanding and gaining knowledge. Without language it is quite challenging to gain knowledge. In class some people did oppose this by saying that copying someone is a way of gaining knowledge without any language. Although I feel that language is essential in gaining knowledge.

A strong example where language is a necessity is chemistry. The language of chemistry (the equations, units and symbols) is an integral part of chemistry. Without having any knowledge in the language of chemistry, one cannot simply understand much.  An example of this was given in the book; many scientists used to misunderstand the concept of equilibrium. The older ideas focused on a 50:50 balance between reactants and products. The scientists did not understand that equilibrium means that the experiment was not favoring either side or that nothing was reacting. Equilibrium meant that both the forward and backward reactions were occurring at the same rate, therefore the backward or forward was not favored due to this.

In addition to the vast skepticism of the religious leaders in the past, chemistry was misunderstood. This lead to a great number of falsifications in theories even improvements in laws and theory. For example, the first periodic table by Dimitri Mendeleev arranged the chemical elements by atomic mass. He was not very accurate, but this was due to lack of advances in technology or prior research.

 It was improved upon greatly by other scientists in the 20^th century, like James Chadwick and Glenn Seaborg. These advances can be credited to the greater understanding of the language of chemistry. This allowed for more precision in research and communication. For example, scientists could communicate with each other much more efficiently than before. For example, describing the observations of an experiment – where people can use technical terms such as effervescence instead of bubbling and acid instead of just liquids.

Overall, I strongly feel language is one of the key ways of knowing, used to gain and understand knowledge. I also feel like this creation of language helped the world advance, in terms of science and technology. It helped in better communication. Although I feel like a bit of the individuality and creativity of some are suppressed a bit due to conforming to social norms and using the language – with all of its rules and guidelines.

I used some this book to get more information.

Bylikin, Sergey, Gary Horner, and Brian Murphy. Chemistry: Oxford IB Diploma Programme. 2014 ed. 2014. Print.