Mental events are representations
Mental events are representations of physical events. Our minds construct representations of events and objects in the world and in our bodies based on input received through the senses. For example, your mind constructs the sound of a ringing bell when the clapper strikes the side of the bell. This disturbance is encoded in sound waves that strike your ears. Your ears convert these sound waves into neural patterns that encode the original physical event in different form. Your mind constructs the sound you hear from this neural pattern, locating it at the point of the original disturbance.
We are conceptpoor
One consequence of the view that mental events are representations of physical events is that it's possible to see that we are "concept poor". To be concept poor (or "conceptpoor") is to lack adequate concepts to describe experience. To be conceptpoor with respect to experiences of a certain type is to lack adequate concepts to describe experiences of that type.
Color
The representations your mind forms are extremely complex and varied. Think of color words, for example. Think of all the different shades of color which have the same name: "green". We do distinguish shades of green by referring to them as "light green" or "dark green", but there's no generally accepted set of words to describe the many shades of green. We are conceptpoor in our color language in that we have only one widely accepted word, 'green', to describe a wide range of color experiences.
One result of being conceptpoor in relation to colors is that we tend not to notice differences in shades of colors. Because we call these colors all green, we see them as the same color, not noticing the tremendous variety in shades. The same argument applies to other colors such as red and blue. The Eskimos have nine different words for different colors (shades) of snow; we should try to be this discriminating in our own language.
Our language does contain color words to pick out color shades; for example, 'sky blue', 'pea green', 'maroon', 'ivory', 'lemon yellow', 'crimson', 'copper', 'livid pink', 'scarlet', 'rose', and 'apple green'. But these shade words do not form a complete or systematic set. Nevertheless, becoming aware of existing shade words is a good way to improve color awareness.
Emotion and feeling
The idea that we are conceptpoor can be generalized to other areas of experience as well. We have one word, 'love', to describe a whole range of emotional experiences. Yet there are many types of love and the experience varies greatly from one type to another. There's a big difference, for example, between love for one's parents and romantic love. Likewise, there are many types of fear and anger. Our emotions represent another area in which we are conceptpoor and our language blurs important distinctions in experience.
In the area of feeling, we use the word 'friend' to describe many different people we have different feelings for. There are work friends, play friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, hobby friends, animal friends, best friends, worst friends, casual friends, distant friends, college friends, computer friends, racquetball friends, dinner friends, phone friends, political friends, etc. Yet we describe them all as "friends" without noticing differences in friend types, and without noticing the shades of differences in our feelings for different friends.
Taste
Taste is another area in which we are conceptpoor. We have a few basic words such as 'salty', 'sweet', 'cold', and 'hot'. Yet there are many differences in how foods taste. Because we have the idea of sweetness in our minds, we tend just to think of something as tasting "sweet" without noticing differences in sweet tastes. Experience here forms a continuum, just as in the case of color. Taste, then, is another area in which we are conceptpoor.
We are Experiencepoor
Because we are conceptpoor, we are "experiencepoor". One way to be experiencepoor is to fail to notice the details of experience. We tend not to notice details of experience for which there's no name or ready description. And the details of experience are harder to remember if we don't remember their name or description. It's hard to remember what shade of green a tree is if you just remember that it's green rather than that it's apple green, since you probably call up a mental image of a generic shade of green.
This philosophical insight has a practical application. Ask yourself:
Do I fail to notice the details of my experiences because I lack adequate concepts to describe them?
Am I experiencepoor because I am conceptpoor?
Seek out new experiences and become experiencerich
One way to be experiencerich is to be aware of the details of your experiences. You can become experiencerich by becoming more discriminating in areas of experience in which our language doesn't provide tools to discriminate. Start being aware of the difference shades of green, red, blue, and other colors. Start noticing different variations in sweet and sour tastes, and in hot and cold foods. Reflect on the variety in your emotional experience, and on the differences in your feelings for different friends.
You can also enrich your life by seeking out new experiences. Your mind forms representations of bodily and physical events based on its input, so different input yields different representations. Try stimulating your tastebuds with new inputs: try foods you've never tried before just to see what they taste like. Try to meet new people and do things you've never even thought of doing!
Of course, the fact that an experience is a new experience may not be sufficient reason to justify having it if there are stronger reasons not to have the experience. Some new experiences are unpleasant or even painful. But seeking out new experiences makes you more discriminating within particular areas of experience, and within a broader range of experience.
By having new experiences you acquire new points of view of the world and thereby increase your knowledge and understanding of yourself and of the world around you. For example, try taking a different route to work or school. Or, try a new restaurant, try food you've never had, or start a conversation with someone you say "Hello" to but never converse with.
By taking new points of view you become aware of details and aspects of the world you didn't notice before, or you see the same thing in a new way. Seeking out new experiences also gives you a wider range in types of experience, making you more experiencerich in this sense as well.
One basic principle of experience is:
You can't know what an experience is like unless you've had the experience.
The reason for this is that there's no reliable method for inferring from our physiology or our brain state to the nature of our subjective experience. So you won't know what squid or mussels taste like until you try them, and you won't know what it's like to fall in love until you do.
If you follow these suggestions, you will have a richer and a more interesting and varied life. And you may wish to add this principle to your philosophy of life:
Seek out new experiences for their own sake, unless there is a stronger reason not to have a particular new experience.
Create new words to describe your experiences
Once you become more aware of the details of your experiences, you may want a method for remembering these details and for describing them to others. In some cases you may not be able to find the words to express yourself. In these cases, you might try creating new words to describe your experiences. For example, you might describe something that's hot (spicy) and sweet as "hotsweet". An example of a hotsweet taste is the taste of hot mustard with honey.
We use words to express points of view. The points of view we can express are limited by the words available to us. And if there is no way to express a point of view, we tend not to notice that it's a possible point of view. Hence, our language limits our experience.
Our language grows out of our experience. A word becomes part of a language when it is used by enough people to become accepted as a word by speakers of the language. But we need not wait for words to evolve; we can also propose new words which represent new points of view. These words will become part of the language if the points of view they are used to express are sufficiently significant that enough speakers of the language choose to express themselves using these words.
