A Linguistic or an Ontological Problem? Some Comments

“Globalization, Scientific Lexicons, and the Future of Biology” is an ambitious and radical article in which Professor Keller proposes that biology should introduce a new, verb-based linguistic framework for its research. However, instead of developing such a proposal in detail, Keller turns to searching out a cross-cultural grounding. Based on Nisbett's comparative psycho-linguistics and Lloyd's comparative studies on ancient Greek and Chinese sciences, Keller finds that Chinese science is embodied in a verb-based language. For example, the Huainanzi takes the term shui (水, water) to mean “soaking downward,” huo (火, fire) “flaming upward,” and the like. As a consequence, Chinese language and science appear significantly different from noun-based Western languages and science. Aware of the pitfalls of an East/West dichotomy, Professor Keller takes the development of feminist theory as an analogue to elaborate her position. Carefully noting that “historians, like feminist...