4 ms·

What do you think about the language of thought hypothesis? Some people would say internal monologue is how they think.

Animats 7y ago
Most of the mammals have similar brains to humans, and some degree of common sense, but little language.
Aperocky 7y ago
As a fully bilingual person, that is not always true. I can have internal monologue in both language. And then there are things I have trouble expressing naturally (Either internally or externally) using either.
crazygringo 7y ago
Yes, that's essentially Whorfianism [1]. The easiest argument against it being: have you even struggled to put a feeling into words? The answer, of course, being yes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
joe_the_user 7y ago
Ah, what you mean by "is" gets tricky. You might literally interpret this as "is internal monologue a form of thought" and the answer is clearly yes, on sum logical level, it's brain activity. You might literally interpret this as "is internal monologue the ONLY form of thought you have" and the answer seems just as clearly no and the question seems simplistic. But I think people who say that usually mean "is internal monologue the primary-in-some-way form of thought you have" and there the debate gets heated but if you reveal statement, you reveal the confusion is mostly in debating "what's primary in brain activity". But if you think about, lot of debates about human thought is about which part is primary in a fashion we can intuitively feel.
beefield 7y ago
My thinking goes as follows: If language is how people think, then you should be able to convey your thoughts to pther people easily and perfectly by using language. Obviously, that is true for only the most trivial thoughts, thus I personally conclude that language has hardly anything to with actual thinking. Based on what I think goes around in my head when I think, I would say that language is one of the outputs of thinking. Which may happen as "internal speech",via mouth or pencil or keyboard.

Most of the mammals have similar brains to humans, and some degree of common sense, but little language.

As a fully bilingual person, that is not always true. I can have internal monologue in both language. And then there are things I have trouble expressing naturally (Either internally or externally) using either.

crazygringo 7y ago

Yes, that's essentially Whorfianism [1]. The easiest argument against it being: have you even struggled to put a feeling into words? The answer, of course, being yes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity

joe_the_user 7y ago

Ah, what you mean by "is" gets tricky. You might literally interpret this as "is internal monologue a form of thought" and the answer is clearly yes, on sum logical level, it's brain activity. You might literally interpret this as "is internal monologue the ONLY form of thought you have" and the answer seems just as clearly no and the question seems simplistic. But I think people who say that usually mean "is internal monologue the primary-in-some-way form of thought you have" and there the debate gets heated but if you reveal statement, you reveal the confusion is mostly in debating "what's primary in brain activity". But if you think about, lot of debates about human thought is about which part is primary in a fashion we can intuitively feel.

beefield 7y ago

My thinking goes as follows: If language is how people think, then you should be able to convey your thoughts to pther people easily and perfectly by using language. Obviously, that is true for only the most trivial thoughts, thus I personally conclude that language has hardly anything to with actual thinking. Based on what I think goes around in my head when I think, I would say that language is one of the outputs of thinking. Which may happen as "internal speech",via mouth or pencil or keyboard.