Can humans think without language? Try it.
4
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
36 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.
My favorite podcast (RadioLab) has an hour long show dedicated to this very question...and it is brilliant!! The stories relayed are truly striking. I wholeheartedly recommend this listen to anyone interested in this topic.
A link to the specific episode: [wnycstudios.org]
APaleBlueDot
Level 7
June 12, 2018
0
Imagine a computer. It processes information. However, that information then has to be communicated, for which it is translated into a language, whether it is a pattern of lights, a screen read-out or speech generation.
The human brain thinks, without a language in the accepted sense. Then it is communicated, usually in stages, to the consciousness. Hence the illusion of thinking in a language. I personally "think I think" in either English or Swahili, but what I am really receiving is a read-out, and I can choose how it is presented.
Petter
Level 9
May 25, 2018
2
Most of this type of thinking is instinctual. For instance, technically, movement is a way of thought. Our brain sends messages without words that trigger our neurons and muscles. A lot of movement can be done without conscious effort. It's pretty amazing. Emotion is another good example. You don't really "think" sadness, anger, etc. in words. You feel it through wordless thoughts and chemical processes. Considering that everything we do is processed by the brain, it could be said that most actual thought is not language-based. That being said, we CAN consciously think in pictures, music (without words, of course), etc. Someone who is deaf and blind can still think. Animals can definitely still think, in their own way.
Ravensasha121
Level 5
May 25, 2018
1
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
I had previously said no. I was thinking that in order to transfer information to another I would have to use a form of language. That's really not the question. I may see a tree and remember a tree without having a name for it. So that would be yes. Reviewing the question ....YES!
BucketlistBob
Level 8
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
Yes they can! If you would like to get into a long conversation about linguistics. I will leave you with this thought,... the human voice box did not evolve until 2 million years or so ago as taught by a 1st generation chompsky. Now if you wish to talk about non verbal communication and social cognitive inference then we should continue. I would love to finish this conversation.
Etre
Level 7
May 24, 2018
0
Etre:
@Donotbelieve will do, must play piano for a while, get back to conversation soon. Fascinates me as well ! Thank You.
Etre:
@Donotbelieve
This is actually a very good and somewhat deep question. Most could care the less over the matter. To understand the aquisition of language and it's relationship with consciousness, we need to look at language and what exactly language is. A communicative format that uses symbols, sounds, inflected tones, harmony, melody, ect.. ect... Perhaps... A comunicative format does not have to use any of the afore metioned concepts. Sign language. No sound at all. However even in the most deafness of emotion, I remember a fellow student who so moved in his communication of sign, would try to vocalize his emotion when signing. How could this be? This human had been deaf since birth. How is it that when trying to symbolize his thoughts through sign, he would express often with a vocal tone? Using sound for communicating thoughts and Ideas extends to the far reaches of our past. Using sound for communication exists within nature itself.
The symbiotic relationship between humans and environment is an exponential equation. How did humans learn language? How did humans create language? Maybe the latter is more fitting. How is that humans have a capacity for thought? What is Consciousness? How do humans communicate consciousness? Do animals not communicate emotion to their offspring?
Dictionaries define words, words define language, language defines Spirit, or better yet Consciousness.
The Great Philosopher and Mathemation Rene Decarte stated, "cogito ergo sum", I think therefore I exist.
The lingustic record holds that the voice box did not evolve till some 2 million years ago. Modern Humans begin around 130k years ago. However recent evidence pushes that number back a couple hundred thousand years. So how did humans communicate and what symbols did they use?
How do children learn? How do puppies learn?
Social Inference or Social Cognitive Inference is a term that refers to how a conscious beings learn or aquire a capacity for language and communication through the given environment. Children do not speak a language with a verbal syntax and grammer. However they do have a means of communicating their thoughts and feelings. Is this stating that enfants do not have a language? I truly do not know. Who does?
What we do know is that even the most basic forms of life communicate. Are these simple life forms using a language and better yet are they thinking without using said language?
What is a language?
Their are some 7 thousand languages on the planet right now. We lose about 250 languages a year. I learned this in 2010. So we are probably closer to 6 thousand.
The act of thought does not require a language. The act of communicating emotion does not require a language. These concepts only exist because we have given symbols(letters), to define the vocal tones that communicate the conscious thought. Just as hand signals and shapes were assigned meaning to communicate emotion, syntax, and grammer.
Do humans not communicate nonverbally?
Are we thinking about and how to use a language when we communicate non verbally?
Are we spelling out terms nonverbally?
If humans learn by means of infering, then I venture to say that it is more reactionary. And it is from this reaction, that humans begin to form a symbiotic relationship with environment. And from this symbiotic relationship, humans formed a language of audible and inflected tones to communicate and or express emotion and or noun verbage syntax grammer, from which mean old ladies with degrees in a language art demand complience unto the properness of speaking that language format.
So to truly answer the question, we must have a complete definition and meaning from the question, of the concept or verb "to think".
Can humans think without language?
Shall we go deeper, or has the question been answered?
Etre:
@Donotbelieve
For the record I studied classical voice, French, and linguistics. I just read your latest post, nice. It appears we have come to similar conculsions. I have read most of the posts here. My conclusions are formed from my studies and knowledge base. I have been accused of copy pasting from enternet sources, however i only do this when showing the definition of a term. And if I am citing a source, then I show the source.
When your dog has nightmares it's thinking without words unless you are the reason for the nightmare.
SLBushway
Level 7
May 24, 2018
2
How do you know your dog has nightmares? Are you perhaps giving them human qualities? Animals have instincts, think Pavlov's dog. Interpreting a dog's behavior as dreams is your intrpretation.
Etre:
@tymtravler
Scientific studies have been conducted on dogs in the dream state of sleep. He is correct! Unless the data has changed I believe the studies came out in late 90's but not positive when they came out. Maybe I will try to find them.
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
Language codifies thought. Not the other way around
But I do think language expands thought
WallyWorld
Level 5
May 24, 2018
3
Of course humans can think without language, because we think in pictures, not words. If we thought in words, every one of us would be a tallented writer and orator. We would all be exemplary communicaters and the world would be a much better place, devoid of misunderstanding. Thanks for the visual. I would love to live in a world like that.
DougDiamond38
Level 4
May 24, 2018
1
pretty sure we think in both images and words. sometimes images of words. sometimes my thoughts are silently verbal. Ie I 'hear' them. sometimes they are simply a series of pictures, much like a how to manual, and other times they appear as text in my minds eyes. I assume its much the same for all of us.
What...? Listen to yourself. No words, only pictures?
@tymtravler Your right. I can't believe I forgot about the inner running monologue. There definately must be an element of both.
If I start to sit down on a rattle snake, I just think to move! I don't think, "I should move." 
dare2dream
Level 7
May 24, 2018
1
I believe so, I think that would be called intuition, where you just have a feeling.
HippieChick58
Level 9
May 24, 2018
1
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
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
Share this post
Related Groups More
Christopher Hitchens Fans
80 members
Categories
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.