I've wondered for a long time about something; but before I get to that I will explain some things. Our minds are constantly active, whether that be because we are thinking, dreaming, observing, or simply processing, there's stuff going on up there. But during the waking hours, a single thing dominates our perception of our surroundings: the constant inner steaming dialogue we have with (in? to?) ourselves. The "voice" in my head, for all intents and purposes, is me. The body that I'm attached to is simply a vessel for the mind. But I am consciously aware of what the constant inner streaming dialogue is "saying," and yet have no reason to "say" it since I am it. The reception of my own thoughts is feedback of the strangest kind, but it's something all humans (that I'm aware of) experience. Now one thing that's always puzzled me is this: my constant inner streaming dialogue is always "speaking" English. There is no accent or "voice" that I "hear," but the message is definitely in sentence form and uses words that I know. When I "think" about something via a "conversation" with my constant inner steaming dialogue, I use words in my native language to do so. But what about people with no language? People who were, from birth, deaf. You might think that they simply process thoughts via images... But how do you go about "conversing" with yourself in image form? And more importantly, how do blind/deaf/mutes go about thinking? What possible form of constant inner streaming dialogue could they have? Complex subjects like philosophy, history, politics; how is this information dealt with? And not just on a processing level, or even comprehension, but on the personal level of the mind. How can someone form a concept of themselves if they don't have the ability to communicate thoughts in any coherent form? I certainly don't know the answers to these questions, and I don't know how we can know. I imagine that this is really an arena for psychology, so I would appreciate those who are familiar with the subject to explain this as best as possible; I've only taken an introductory Gen. Psych course.
Hmm...so I'm not the only one who thinks about random things like these... Anyway, I sometimes find myself thinking in English, even though it's not my mother language... But yes, the "clearly having a conversation with myself without literally "hearing" something" sounds really familiar. I have the same when I think about something and visualize an image. I can't "see" the image, but I kind of can...then, I start thinking about what the senses really are and I get a massive headache... And I think blind people can imagine images, but I'm not sure, you'd have to ask a blind person to find out, I guess.
I believe that it is simply a method of processing thought in a coherent way. Language could be just one way of processing something, there is images and probably other things that we simply can not really "describe". The thoughts more or less "appear". Like maturity. At a young age, Female and Male might as well be arch enemies. But as both sides grow older, they naturally become more intertwined by instinct, rather than self-analysis or outside information take in. Think of it this way, you do not consciously figure to move your arm. You simply do, by instinct. You do not consciously decide you should eat every day. You simply do by instinct. So in the end, many of our actions are driven by instinct rather than by pure analysis as the idea of language presumes. Perhaps the blind, def, etc. function based on instinctively eating, drinking, sleeping, and such rather than by discussing the most rational method with their minds. This could be another reason why the mentally handicapped community isn't exactly thriving with educated peoples.
It's a very interesting subject that I started being concerned about after reading 1984. I even made my own dialect of Newspeak (which of course, would have been against the rules of Newspeak).
Well if they know sign language then maybe images of hand signs flash across their minds? Language is extremely important in the development of intelligence, if you've never learned a language then I believe you'd essentially be severely mentally handicapped. I imagine they would go about life acting on instinct, unable to work things out in their minds.
The relationship between language and thought is certainly interesting, there were both psychologists and philosophists who studied the idea of what coming first, language or thought? (I did have this personal thing of instead of saying such and such is a 'chicken and egg' situation, I said whether it is a 'language and thought' situation, which is probably why I have no friends) It is quite certain that we can process thought without language, for example when I ask you how would President Obama look like if he is white (I have no idea why I would use such a wierd example) you do not process your thought through language, you imagine the image itself. So are actions and movements. However when it comes to more abstract things, such as philosophy, the role language plays is a lot more complicated. Some consider that language cannot be seperated from thought, as language 'represents' thinking. However personally I would consider that language is not neccessary in the process of thinking, as there is imagery that can be as effective (and sometimes even more) than language. Take the collectivist ideology for example. In words you may think along the line of 'we should put the community in the first place, before the individual as it would better bring prosperity to the people and provide them a better life'. And on the other hand you may imagine yourself working hard on the field everyday to grow crops and upon harvest you see the happy faces of people who get to enjoy them. But at the meantime of thinking this you would feel warmth flowing through your body. One would describe it as a sense of accomplishment, but there is more to that. Some may say it is the joy of giving, but it is not exactly like that either. You know that you feel good about it, but you cannot exactly explain it. And the many flaws of language itself (including the inability to explain human emotions accurately or the 'open endedness' of language) is proof to me that thoughts are not dependant on language. Do notice that some who consider language to be inseperable to thoughts claim that it is these very flaws of language that led to flaws of human thought, which is quite interesting and I believe is worth thinking about.
One of the important things about Aspergers Syndrome is that people who have it think with images first and have to translate those images into language. This makes speaking and social activity harder (though it's not their only reason for worse social activity). Concepts such as liberty, economics and such can be understood in image form without being translated into language. One of the reasons the false stereotype of autistics being unintelligent is purported is because of how difficult it can be to convert intelligent thoughts into language.
Maybe they associate certain things like feelings or memories with something. It could be such an alien way of thinking that it would be impossible for us to describe.
I used to participate in a message board about personality types and one of the highest responded threads was similar to this. A lot of the responses were from people who think in pictures or videos, and rarely; emotions. The most common method seemed to be speaking to oneself. It's really not as alien as you guys are making it sound. Picture this: You are at your house. You close the front door. You have an important errand to run in town. Do you immediately explain the directions to the place your going, or do you simply picture a heads down map with 2 dots and a line between them. Many of you probably think of a map. I do; which frankly has been quite bad for me as a driver as my driving is almost automated. Hard to focus on a mundane task .
