Editing Linguistic relativity (section)

=== Ancient philosophy to the Enlightenment ===
The idea that language and thought are intertwined is ancient. In his dialogue [[Cratylus (dialogue)|Cratylus]], [[Plato]] explores the idea that conceptions of reality, such as [[Heraclitus|Heraclitean]] flux, are embedded in language. But Plato has been read as arguing against [[sophist]] thinkers such as [[Gorgias of Leontini]], who claimed that the physical world cannot be experienced except through language; this made the question of truth dependent on aesthetic preferences or functional consequences. Plato may have held instead that the world consisted of eternal ideas and that language should represent these ideas as accurately as possible.<ref name="McComiskey2002">{{cite book|first=Bruce |last=McComiskey|title=Gorgias and the New Sophistic Rhetoric|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=s3T6LYkGOqUC}}|year=2002|publisher=SIU Press|isbn=978-0-8093-2397-5}}</ref> Nevertheless, Plato's [[Seventh Letter]] claims that ultimate truth is inexpressible in words.

Following Plato, [[St. Augustine]], for example, argued that language was merely like labels applied to concepts existing already. This opinion remained prevalent throughout the [[Middle Ages]].{{sfn|Gumperz|Levinson|1996|p=2}} [[Roger Bacon]] had the opinion that language was but a veil covering eternal truths, hiding them from human experience. For [[Immanuel Kant]], language was but one of several methods used by humans to experience the world.