If we had no language, what would thought be?

Discussion in 'Philosophy' started by feevers, May 26, 2008.

  1. I was talking with a friend earlier today, and he brought up a very good question. Would we be able to think if we did not have language? It is a very hard thought to grasp, because it is hard to imagine what thinking without words would be like(maybe it's hard to grasp because we have no words to describe what it would be like, because we have never experienced it). Would life rely on instinct? When people say our ability to reason seperates us from other animals, would we be able to reason if we didn't have words? Is language all that seperates us from other animals? We have assigned these symbols(words) for every emotion, for every object abstract or concrete, what we don't have a word for, does not seem to exist. Has language given us so much, and yet truly limited us? What would thinking without using words be called? Meditation?

    If this comes off as a little jumbled I'm sorry, this is my first time smoking in 3 weeks and I am completely roasted.
     

  2. In Chinese, the word for mind (which does the thinking) is xin. That word also means heart. :)

    I think the heart, which loves, is the center. :) It would be the "gut feeling" or intuition (love at first sight type of shit).
     
  3. Is language really involved with thinking ? or do we just relate our thoughts with language ? For the first humans on this planet , without language , they still "thought" . I think that you would just be following a thought process by image and sensory input rather than by constructed words .

    P.S. I'm not sure how that sounds , but I ate some mushrooms a couple of hours ago and it seems right to me .
     
  4. I think it would just be symbols.
     
  5. I definitely don't think in just words, but more in concepts and vague *understandings*

    very subconcious, almost.
     
  6. agreed. imagine if these thoughts and concepts could be shared telepathically. i think people were telepathic at some point..
     
  7. What do babies and young children think? They also have no concept of language.
     
  8. when we think, we think with words to say a meaning, and we have words for these meanings.

    so if there was no language i think it just be images or attempted understanding of these meanings by other scenes.
     
  9. Language is the number one thing restricting our thoughts.
     

  10. Yet look how far it has brought us.

    It is the building block of society, but it just builds walls around us.
     
  11. When cats meow to each other, they are communicating. We use language to communicate, so the cats have thoughts and they use their own language. What about when we think, we think in language. All the conversations in your head, thoughts, are in some language. So do cats meow in their heads? Without our language, how could we think?

    Also, what do you mean language is the number one thing restricting our thoughts? I don't know. Sure, language does 'restrict' our thoughts in the sense that it organizes and structures them so that they can become thoughts in the first place. An ocean of colourful stuff and sunshine, whatnot, or a curtailed stream with lots of gold to be panned? I don't know.
     
  12. What if a person was born deaf and blind , and was never able to learn words . They were taught how to read brail ... so they must think in brail .

    Or if they were just born deaf , and only knew sign-language , they would think in sign-language .

    But really , I think that language ( whatever form it may be ) is just what we use to read our thoughts . It doesn't matter what the language is ( noises , words , images , ect. ) , they are only used to interpret our thoughts .
     

  13. i agree, this is exactly what i attempted to say
     
  14. we would think in pictures.
     
  15. We would think of feelings and emotions... Just like when we were little babies we didn't know any words just grunts and sounds.. Did we still have thoughts? Of course we did, we just couldn't articulate them.

    It's the same principle now... We would think in feelings, pictures, emotions, and like somebody else mentioned it would be a vague understanding of something... Doesn't mean we have to use words to describe that understanding... Ya dig? :cool:
     
  16. "pictures" are memories and combinations of memories of visual input.
    we can always think in relation to those sensory inputs that we have experienced in the past, as well as those emotions that we have experienced in the past. when you articulate something in your mind, in language, it is an interpretation and a translation of your initial thought, which was purely thought.
     
  17. I believe without any kind of words, communication would be impossible, thus life would be impossible as well. Unless you consider we have basic instincts and a basic way of communicating with each other, in which case I think we would be much more like animals.

    and the closest things that we could relate life without communication too is plants.

    Also just to add on to my point, I think language is a big part of human thought, therefor trying to conceive anything otherwise is speculation, and will remain so.

    Good question though, very thought provoking. Especially while stoned.
     


  18. So the first humans on this planet couldn't have survived since they didn't have words to communicate with ? I don't think that the first humans came into existance with any knowledge of language , but they obviously survived .


    And , I believe we are animals . Ape-like mammals . There are plenty of species that do not have complex language systems , yet have been surviving for much longer than humans have even been on this planet .
     
  19. Am I really the only one here that thinks in pictures like, 80% of the time?
    And it was interesting. I asked a fluent English & Spanish speaker what language she thought it. English or Spanish. She said it varies. Hehe.
     
  20. No, I do (the picture/conceptual stuff). And I think sometimes in English and Spanish together at work. I basically speak Spanglish in the kitchen.
     

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