A really good article by Lera Boroditsky on how inseparably intertwined our language is with how we look at the world:

Humans
communicate with one another using a dazzling array of languages, each
differing from the next in innumerable ways. Do the languages we speak
shape the way we see the world, the way we think, and the way we live
our lives? Do people who speak different languages think differently
simply because they speak different languages? Does learning new
languages change the way you think? Do polyglots think differently when
speaking different languages?

These
questions touch on nearly all of the major controversies in the study
of mind. They have engaged scores of philosophers, anthropologists,
linguists, and psychologists, and they have important implications for
politics, law, and religion. Yet despite nearly constant attention and
debate, very little empirical work was done on these questions until
recently. For a long time, the idea that language might shape thought
was considered at best untestable and more often simply wrong. Research
in my labs at Stanford University and at MIT has helped reopen this
question. We have collected data around the world: from China, Greece,
Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have
learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think
differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how
we see the world. Language is a uniquely human gift, central to our
experience of being human. Appreciating its role in constructing our
mental lives brings us one step closer to understanding the very nature
of humanity.

More here. (via 3QD)