NLI (monograph)

What is NLI?

NLI stands for Nonrepresentational Linguistic Idealism. It is a philosophical position that puts the mind at the centre of reality and language at the centre of the mind. It asserts that thought is linguistic in nature and that humans can only ever be conscious of ideas encoded in language. Language does not represent the physical world, as is often claimed, but creates a world in itself. Language lights up the mind for us from the inside. It is the homunculus. It is our DNA. (Download PDF free of charge.)

In 2020, I published my book It’s Language Stupid: unravelling the DNA of the mind. The book represented many years of researching and teaching on language, and contemplating its relationship with the mind. Since that time I have continued to write and my thinking has developed on this subject. The monograph here brings together all these ideas into one place and puts them under a new name: Nonrepresentational Linguistic Idealism (NLI).

It has always been known that language plays a central role in human discourse encoding our ideas, values and beliefs in history, law, politics, education and much of day-to-day society. NLI claims that language is also central to our thought processes. So central in fact that we could term it the ‘DNA of the mind’. The mind is language and is conscious through language.

The monograph is available here for download free of charge as a PDF. It consists of a series of posts over two years which together summarise my position on language and the mind.

Cribb, V.M. (2023). Nonrepresentational Linguistic Idealism. Essential Tremor monograph publications.

If the download fails, please email me for a copy.