Can humans think without language? Try it.
4
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36 comments (26 - 36)
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I'd suppose that whatever the means to convey ideas to one another can be defined as language.
Whatever one works out in ones own head to make decisions, I would suppose could as well be defined as ones own inner language.
When I first heard that idea about one could not think without language, in the 60's, I still had clearer memory of when I did seem to think more in imagery than words. By now it is just memory of memory.
CraigK
Level 2
May 25, 2018
0
Before we had language, we had communication. I'm sure that three human beings contacted each other to warn of predators, to indicate the possibilities of food, and to pass on any other short-term Communications, just as chimpanzees and other primates do.
But you get to your question, we see images, we see facial expressions, and we can probably store those somewhere in our memory areas of our brain.
Your question depends on what you mean by "think." If you mean "store and process Communications and images," then we can think. If you mean "solve complex equations and imagine our own death," then early human predecessors could not do that.
Donwelty
Level 4
May 24, 2018
0
Individually very little, one person alone without language to connect them would learn so little, no clothes, cooking, even the simplest tool like a sharp stick. They would have to invent or discover everything. A simple intuitve language of gestures might enable the most bare survival.but all of science and philosophy and nearly all practical knowledge would be lost without it.
Buttercup
Level 8
May 24, 2018
0
Damn.... a catch question.... alright...I say yes. Doesn't hand jesters become a language when used to explain? The same as a facial expression?
BucketlistBob
Level 8
May 24, 2018
0
Thinking is nothing more than the processing of things you have learned throughout your life. The processing of intelligence. Without "language" (in whatever form it takes), there is no intelligence, so there can be no thought.
Clauddvon
Level 7
May 24, 2018
0
ravens are highly intelligent, with little to no indication of a language. That implies that a human raised in complete isolation loses the ability to reason, and I find that... unlikely.
@dellik I can see your point. However, even animals have language and thought. It's just not the same as our language and thought. Ravens make sounds and communicate with other Ravens so they have thought and intelligence.
My initial point is still very valid. Animals...ALL animals only process and think about those things that they have learned, communicated and lived. So any animal can think if they have experienced any of these things. Not how we do, but that's irrelevant.
Also no one says (except you) that you lose what you've learned. I don't believe that.
@Clauddvon lose what you learned? no where did I say, nor even come close to implying that.
And if you could only think about what you have learned, it would be impossible for anyone to learn anything new.. are you unfamiliar with abstract thinking?
You do not need communication for thought. thus, you do not need language for thought.
@dellik Read the last sentence and then go away. "Culture, experience and.... Teaching."... This LEARNED. Even abstract teaching, reasoning and thought is learned.
How Does Abstract Reasoning Develop?
Developmental psychologist Jean Piaget argued that children develop abstract reasoning skills as part of their last stage of development, known as the formal operational stage. This stage occurs between the ages of 11 and 16. However, the beginnings of abstract reasoning may be present earlier, and gifted children frequently develop abstract reasoning at an earlier age. Some psychologists have argued that the development of abstract reasoning is not a natural developmental stage. Rather, it is the product of culture, experience, and teaching.
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