Opinion Article Analysis

The Nobel Committee recently awarded the European Union the Nobel Peace Prize. I was unaware that there is a history of the Nobel Committee giving this award to organizations and not persons. This article rather gives a slight critique of the Nobel Committee using it's clout to act as an agent on the world stage.

If there is an argument in this article I believe it is in this perplexingly written paragraph near the end:

"Yet we find ourselves asking whether it is really the job of the committee to use this award to get involved in current affairs rather than to single out great achievements, as the awards to Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa did. And we find it a bit hard to accept the singling out of the E.U. (which Norwegians have voted against joining) for its fostering of peace in Europe since World War II, when NATO and the United States were at least as responsible."

If anything he seems to be describing an argument for why the EU should not have been awarded the Prize.

1)The role of the committee is not to get involved in current affairs
2)Awarding the EU the Nobel Peace Prize is getting involved in current affairs
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3)The role of the committee is not to award the EU the Prize

Reflecting Reality

Does language reflect reality or is it a self contained system only incidentally referring to realty?

Language's job is to function as the medium of dialogue about reality. Because this is it's job it seems that language would reflect reality because that is what it is referring to. Though this is hard to test because there is no way to see language discuss anything else besides what exists.

Language must therefore function and refer to the structure of reality. For example, the concept of a-thing v no-thing reflects the existence or nonexistence of a thing. All these concepts refer to real things and their actual relationships in the world. If this was some other universe where language could exist, language would reflect different rules existing around whatever there was in that universe.