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> German doesn’t have a word for “mind”. Does that mean Germans don’t understand the concept? As a german native speaker I belive "Bewusstsein" is the german w
by hasoleju 3y ago
> German doesn’t have a word for “mind”. Does that mean Germans don’t understand the concept?
As a german native speaker I belive "Bewusstsein" is the german word for "mind".
Interesting fact:
"Bewusst - sein" written in two words is retranslated word by word to something like: "Beeing mindful"
- Kezzo 3y agoI would translates "Bewusst sein" as "being conscious".
- hasoleju 3y agoI agree. This is a better translation.
- hnbad 3y agoDepends. It can also mean "being aware (of something)": "(sich etw.) bewusst sein". In that sense I guess mindfulness could be translated this way (in case you're wondering, the German term for mindfulness is just "Mindfulness", just like the German term for computer is "Computer").
- gdprrrr 3y agoMindfulness is often translated as Achtsamkeit
- qwertox 3y agoI'd go a bit more with "being (self-)aware". Being conscious sounds a bit more like a (positive) medical condition, compared to being unconscious, while awareness is more of a mindful thing.
- hnbad 3y agoLike most "language X has no word for Y" or "language X has a thousand words for Y" claims, it's true in a trivial sense and false in a practical sense. Yes, there is no exact translation for "mind" that carries with it every contextual sense the word can have in English. Word-for-word translations generally don't work very well in any pair of languages. German does however have plenty of words that have the same meaning as "mind" when used in the same context: Bewusstsein (consciousness), Verstand (reason), Geist (spirit/intellect), Gedanken (thoughts), Gehirn (brain), Meinung (opinion), Phantasie (imagination), Denkweise (way of thinking), Gemüt (disposition) and so on. So does German have no word for "mind" or a dozen? Daniel Dennett created a nice word for such claims: "deepity". A statement that seems insightful (deep) at first but turns out to be trivial if you spend a few seconds reflecting on it. German doesn't have a word for "mind" because it's an English word and there's a dozen words that already express the same ideas in every possible context. If you find a concrete context in which there is no word sufficiently expressing the same idea, that's when you create a new one or borrow one: like zeitgeist, a German word that could just as well have been translated as "spirit of the times" or angst, another German word that literally means fear or dread.
- uxcolumbo 3y agoThanks for clarifying. A shame that article dismissed this so easily - doesn't paint a good picture on the author and makes me question what else did the author skim over.
- tgv 3y agodenken; Meinung, Ansicht; Gedanken; Denkweise; Geist; Verstand. But the point may have been made im Scherz, an expression that may exist in English, but to which some of its transatlantic speakers have an ambivalent relation.
- jjgreen 3y agoIt would explain why there have been no German psychologists nor philosophers, ..., wait ...