What role does language play in knowledge?

[Beryllos]

Actually, I think that true humans did not exist on this planet earlier than 40,000 years ago, as evidenced by the existence of stone age art.

I’m not necessarily agreeing with you, but I note that the earliest musical instruments that we know of are bone flutes from an estimated 42-43K years ago. These may have been used in songs and storytelling, but who knows?

Earliest music instruments found

Researchers excavating a cave in Germany identify what they say are the oldest-known musical instruments in the world.

www.bbc.com

 

[rom]

It seems the level of advancement in human language has been roughly the same back to the beginning of recorded history.

That is not exactly true. The improvement in human language is not limited to mere stylistic changes, such as the change from old English to modern English. The improvement also consists in its application to technology and research. For example, humans have invented the Morse code for the transmission of messages, binary codes used in machine language programming, as well as several varieties of programming languages (Fortran, Pascal, C, etc.) for communicating with machines. The expansion in human language is also occasioned by our ability to decipher ancient languages, such as the hieroglyps of Egypt, cuneiform writing, etc. Many scientists today are also trying to understand the genetic code, the language for protein synthesis that God had written in nature. None of these achievements could be seen in the million year old languages of the animal world.

I’m not necessarily agreeing with you, but I note that the earliest musical instruments that we know of are bone flutes from an estimated 42-43K years ago. These may have been used in songs and storytelling, but who knows?

One article I found says that these flutes were actually the work of scavenging hyenas. See https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...ument-bones-flutes-archaeology-science/#close

It is possible that some early hominids used these instruments, not for music but for making alarm signals. At least, orang-utans are known to have done that with leaves. See Orang-utans fashion only known animal instrument | New Scientist

Also, the mere ability to produce rudimentary musical sounds is not decisive proof of human intelligence, because there are many animals that show this ability. See 7 Amazing Animal Musicians - Explore.

There is plenty of evidence that many animals also enjoy music. See Zoomusicology - Wikipedia

 

[rom]

How about a philosopher or theologian? Is there anything profound that is only to be discovered if thinking and reflecting in other languages? Or is every thought-process available for english speakers?

I don’t find your questions non-sensical. But IMO some languages are better than others for expressing philosophical and theological ideas. For example, Latin and Greek have been successful in conveying metaphysical ideas that involve being or existence. I am not familiar with all the languages in the world, but there may be others which have sufficient vocabulary and grammatical structure that could do the same thing. Some languages are good to learn if you are specializing on science and technology – such as English, Russian, German, Japanese, etc. On the other hand, some languages may not be rich in the vocabulary of science, but they are excellent for expressing love, romance, and emotions of the soul – such as Spanish, Italian, etc. I guess it depends on what field of research you are in.