If you ask anyone with a scientific background "what is a universal language that you know?” many would give the answer as mathematics. But why is that? As I see, most would say it because everyone else is saying it, and some say it because it is the underlying backbone of modern science; especially physics. There would be no physics or modern science if not for mathematics. And as I see, the notion of mathematics being “the” universal language arose from it being used to model and explain many aspects of the universe we know. But does being the core of modern science qualify it to be the universal language? I think not.

First of all let’s look at what a language is. In layman terms, a language is a tool that is used to represent, manipulate and convey knowledge. As English, French, Sinhala and all the languages are formed for this purpose, mathematics is not very different. And though, all the languages are made for handling knowledge, the way each language achieve it is different from one another and sometimes is also very unique; and mathematics as a language is also different and unique in its own way.

Then let’s see what a universal language is or should be like. In my opinion, a universal language should be an ultimate tool in handling knowledge. Knowledge comes in different shapes, colors and sizes. Quantifiable knowledge, the kind of knowledge that mathematics is so much capable of handling is just one kind, and there may even exist forms of knowledge that we as humans still or never be able to handle as we do not possess unlimited physical or mental capabilities. Here, it is important to understand that the entire collective of human knowledge is limited by the physical and mental capabilities of us, the humans. May it be the knowledge of a scientific theory or the knowledge in a piece of literature or the knowledge of a tasty recipe or simply the knowledge of knowing that it is raining outside, every bit of this knowledge is crafted by us, in a way we understand. And this vast system of collective knowledge is molded in a systematic way that we humans can understand and handle, mathematics included. And a true universal language should be able to handle knowledge despite these differences. And even though a true universal language exists, we may have to reach an ultimate state in at least in mental abilities to fully able to use it.

Moreover, an important thing to understand is that mathematics is human-made. Same as art, science, philosophy and every other thing we have learned and invented, it is an integral and an important part of the human knowledge collective. Specifically mathematics is a systematic language with emphasis on handling knowledge of quantities.

Mathematics is a language that deals in quantities. And quantifiability is a primary requirement in the scientific world. Actually this is the reason that mathematics is used as the backbone of science. But natural (spoken) languages incorporate many aspects other than just quantities. And this makes a statement in a natural language open to a wide variety of interpretations, thus containing more information. But this quality also makes it not very suitable for a field that emphasize on dealing with quantities such as science.

In my opinion, the requirement of quantifiability is a human weakness. It’s a human inability that makes it very difficult for us to understand the universe without specifics. But why does based on our weaknesses we should decide that something is more powerful and universal than another?

And finally what about mental objects? Yes, we may still not be able to exchange information between one another directly using mental objects or store them for later use, but who’s to say we won’t be able to in the future? And the representation of information is astronomically powerful and diverse with mental objects. And the language of mental objects could be the ultimate limit on the human knowledge handling capability. Maybe and just maybe the language of mental objects could one day become a true universal language, or we may invent something entirely different that is more powerful. So until then, let’s not jump into false conclusions. ☺