Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Thinking Seems to be More Than Language
Yesterday in a philosophy class I was explaining something complex to everyone. The complex idea I was describing was a model in my mind. When I was explaining the idea I was mentally looking at it. I think this allowed me to not worry about memorizing what I was going to say. During my explanation I had to address a criticism. I was able to address that with full attention and then go back to explaining the rest of the complex idea without worrying about forgetting what I was going to say because I was describing the model. I was able to be conscious of this activity without disruption, so it leads me to think that thinking isn't bound by language. I might have been more conscious of it because of my last discussion in Stickam with Laughingman. So it seems I agree with Neon that it's more than language. I'm not sure what to call it. Maybe we have a philosopher of mind who knows the correct terminology?
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It seemed to be symbols structured together. That's why I'm using the term model.
ReplyDeleteOne important thing missing in all this is that language is separate from experience. Original experience is prelinguistic because we have experience prior to thinking about it and organizing it according to the categories of language. This original experience then carries with it its own complex structure which is different and very much separate from the structure of thought and language. What it is that goes along with ‘experiencing’ is what is without language (and thus must involve thinking at some level?). Even though, for the most part, human thinking is normally understood through language, ‘thinking thought’ and ‘speaking speech’ could be seen as 2 terms designating the same phenomenon…but this then gets caught up in a messy transcendental idealism, which I personally like to steer away from.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite ways of looking at it is from Levinas who says, “meaning surprises the very thought which thinks it.” How meaning manifests is thus through language, but I also think ‘language’ is through any form of expression of oneself (i.e. bodily expression, artistic, or even through silence). How people pick and choose what to express and how to express is then revealing of what is meaningful for them and how they want to move from the real of an experiencing body (a thinking body?) to a body that expresses itself.
(And sorry if this doesn't make sense. I'm slightly sleep deprived.)
Basically, the attempt to reduce it all down to language divorces language from intentionality. Clearly, we have intentionality and an internal thought process of sorts, and while it may have a linguistic element to it, it is not purely linguistic. Our concepts are not merely based on language but something even more fundamental than language. Thinking is more than language.
ReplyDeletewell, yes...but what is it that is 'more' than language? I say it is us, in the moment, being a physical body with a mind that therefore experiences the world with every part of our body, sensations, intentions, conceptions...all which are a priori to language or internal dialogue. Our intentionality, therefore, is also more than just thinking 'of' or 'about' something but a direction in every way possible towards something, not just with a linguistic thinking of, but a perception encompassing our temporarily and entire existence.
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