> >>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?
> > There are disagreements on this, and there is no real way to test one way
> or
> > another,but I (and others) belive that prior to the advent of language,
> people
> > didn't think.
>
> I've never thought of it that way, but it is a sound theory. It might be
> true depending on what you mean by people didn't think before language.
> They wouldn't have thought to themselves but I don't think that precludes
> all cognition and I'd say that cognition is thinking. Animals exercise some
> awareness and use judgement--whether that indicates consciousness or not is
> another (yet related) matter.
When you say thinking you must clearly define what you mean. I would assume
that dogs and other animals think to some extant, although one could argue that
they have limited language ability. I've often felt that there are two
different types of thought, which my friends and I have termed intentional and
unintentional thought. Intentional thought usually involves some sort of symbol
manipulation, and can be characterized by the tasks well attacked by Artificial
Intelligence. Unintentional thought does not deal with symbol manipulation and
are often the tasks AI finds difficult, better handled by neural networks or
Artificial Life. Intentional thought is what occurs when you are trying to
learn a new task, integrate a function, or find the best route to a
destination. Unintentional thought is what helps you make more instictual
decisions, often times actions or procedural things. Examples are driving a
car, walking, and recognizing a person's face or voice.. Many other tasks can
be either intentional or unintentional. Many people it seems put almost no
intentional thought into talking. There are people I know that I cannot stand
to be around, simply because there conversations are so completely repetitive.
It seems they spend no time thinking of what to say, and just say whatever
feels natural. Back to the topic. I would say that before language the
ability for unintentional thought was there, but the ability to manipulate
symbols (intentional thought) may have developed after/as a consequence of/ or
symbiotically with language.
-Paul Prestopnik