How do/did people who never learned a language think?
In: 1738
As a father to a nonverbal autistic child I would love to know the answer…*sigh* don’t think we’ll ever know
My feeling is that the development of language was what jump-started civilization, because speech forces you into linear thinking. You can only say one word at a time, so speaking makes you learn to arrange words in a specific order. This trains you to think in terms of sequences, before and after, cause and effect – fundamental concepts that lead to planning ahead, developing procedures that had to be done in the right order, and teaching them to each other. I think speech was the key to all that as opposed to simply holding a big leaf over your head to keep the rain off.
In concepts.
I have aphantasia and don’t see images, hear sounds, or a voice in my head. When I think of things it is just the pure concept.
Blew my mind when I learnt a few years ago that most people experience their thoughts in words and can imagine an image in their head.
It works because you think in “symbols” so to speak, no language required. The language itself is just the means to express these symbols 😉
I feel like it’s possible, but may not be clear. Although some concepts may need to be put in words, most are possible to be explained using pictures.
Latest Answers