Can thought exist without language?

[Num7]

A long time ago, humans developed primitive forms of language, which they were able to understand one another with. Perhaps we can look at animals, can they think? What about emotions?

Do you think they developed thinking before, or after the coming of language?

Can thinking take place without language?

 

[PaulaJedi]

Animals do have language capabilities, although not as highly developed as humans.

"A language development test, for example, reveals that the average dog can learn about 165 words, similar to the capacity of a 2-year old child."

I can't seem to find any information on it, but cats develop their own, personal language for communication. Cats have their own meows, growls, and body language to communicate.

Thinking that can take place without language could probably be found in a gold fish. He may receive a hunger signal and search for food. The search for food would be a type of thinking, however, a goldfish doesn't communicate with anything or anybody... or does it? Is the goldfish asking for food when he swims to the top of the bowl when a human walks by, or is it just a biological response?

I guess we'd need to do research to find out if creatures like goldfish have the capability of mental imagery. If they do, that would answer your question about thinking without language.

 

[Num7]

Nice. Those are very good points, especially about the gold fish. They know when they're about to get feed, right? They come up and look at you until you give them the food. I suppose it's a form of thinking. Never thought of it that way.

What about instinct? Do you count instinct as a form of thinking? I guess it can be considered as such. What do you think?

 

[PaulaJedi]

Instinct is an automatic response. My guess is that it isn't thinking per se. I can only give an example. Women automatically hold babies on the left side over their heart. It's an instinct. I never thought about it until one day I read we did that and low and behold, I realized I did the same thing! So, I'm not sure that is "thinking".

Thinking is defined as, "the process of using one's mind to consider or reason about something." So, if it's automatic, there is no reasoning involved. Does that sound right?

(Good topic, by the way).

 

[Num7]

I agree with the definition of thinking. It's important to remember that it's a conscious process.

But, the automatic response, the instinct, it involves a consideration, an analysis of some sort as well. Maybe not a conscious one though, would that make sense? If the concerned automatic response happens when X or Y conditions are met, there got to be something, somewhere that triggers this automatic response. How does that qualifies when it comes to thinking? In other words, is it automatic reasoning?

 

[Justinian]

Look at the cave drawings in France. No language, just pictures. I always assumed this would be how species that can only communicate telepathically would "converse". And who's to say that animals aren't telepathic and laughing at us while I try to get my dog to do tricks.

 

[Num7]

Haha, interesting. We'd likely have no way to know, right.

Can cave drawings be considered some kind of language? Maybe it's a bit far-fetched to consider them an actual language. But I think they can be seem as a way ... to communicate, to share an idea or a thought? Hmm.

 

[Justinian]

I don't know about those particular cave drawings but I just think of... a treasure map. Can you draw someone in your area a map to a specific location without using words? For that matter.. Turn off the voice on your GPS. Sure it shows you thinks like highway numbers, but imagine if instead of numbers, highways were associated with pictures of something. It'd be the same. Total communication and understand. Now imagine a telepath. I never imagine telepathy of words in my head. I always imagine it as someone putting pictures in my head. Pictures of things I personally would understand to know what the other person/entity wanted me to understand.

 

[PaulaJedi]

I agree with the definition of thinking. It's important to remember that it's a conscious process.

But, the automatic response, the instinct, it involves a consideration, an analysis of some sort as well. Maybe not a conscious one though, would that make sense? If the concerned automatic response happens when X or Y conditions are met, there got to be something, somewhere that triggers this automatic response. How does that qualifies when it comes to thinking? In other words, is it automatic reasoning?

Subconcious thinking perhaps.

 

[ElementalDissonance]

If I ask you to think about a special moment in your past, the smile of a loved one, or a painful memory, what goes through your mind?