Benjamin Lee Whorf's theory of language, culture, and consciousness: A critique of western science

Benjamin Lee Whorf's (1897-1941) writings generally fall into two categories: those related to his research on the Hopi and Mayan cultures and languages, and those providing a critique of linguistic theory in particular and Western science in general. This paper is focused on six essays in Carroll's collection of Whorf's work: the first two essays, written in the mid-1930s, fall into the first category: “An American Indian Model of the Universe” and “A Linguistic Consideration of Thinking in Primitive Communities”; and the final four essays, written at the end of his life, fall into the second category: “Science and Linguistics” (1940), “Linguistics as an Exact Science” (1940), “Language and Logic” (1941), and “Language, Mind, and Reality” (1942).