> Most people don't realize how important language actually is and they take
> it for granted. Even when thinking to themselves, thinking in English (or
> whatever language) seems innate, but how did people think before the onset
> of the spoken word? Even in reading and writing, we sort of convert
> orthography into mental phonetics, pronouncing words the same way we'd
> speak them out loud. I'd say that language has had as much of an impact on
> how we communicate with ourselves as it has on interpersonal communication.
> Knowledge is power, but it's harnessed and attained by means of language.
Dennett certainly holds that position: that internal communication
(thinking to oneself, framed as silently talking to oneself) derives from
external communication. Certainly there are modes of mental activity that
owe nothing to language (in the individual's history or through
evolutionary adaptation for language), but I expect disagreement on
whether those modes consitute "thought".
--Eva,
who wishes you all a merry Moosemas,
that being the celebration of the nativity of the nativity of Bullwinkle,
cartoon incarnation of the Horned God and husband-brother of Eris, goddess
of discord and chaos,
celebrated every Friday the 13th that falls on a full moon,
this one having the bonus of being a lunar eclipse.