Language and thought
Good Friends
Whenever I'm aware of myself thinking I'm aware of words. In fact, I think most clearly when I write.
It seems that language and thought are part of the same mental process. Neuroscience can measure the regions of the brain that are active during various mental tasks. Early results seemed to confirm that whenever we think the language regions of our brains are activated.
Recently, more sensitive scanners have revealed a surprise.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/science/brain-language-thought.html
It was found that when people were solving puzzles, for instance, the language circuits in the brain were not activated.
Probably artists are thinking without activating language much. Now I think of it, Betty Edwards was writing about that more than 40 years ago in her "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. That's the best book about how to draw that I've encountered. She was pretty specific. She said that the verbal brain (left hemisphere) was dominant and had to be quieted so that we could see clearly enough to draw. She even provided exercises to quiet the left brain.
As the link above says, language is for communication - duh! And a lot of what we communicate is what we are thinking.
I find that writing helps my thinking a lot; when I write, I'm communicating with myself. I don't know about you but my mind often refuses to stay on topic and wanders. When I write I can get the thread back more easily.
And then when I'm done I can pass the whole thought on to as many people as I want easily
Philosophers and linguists seem to have a bias in favor of words. Who knew? ? And no wonder.
IIRC, Clive Bell wrote about how the 'aesthetic experience' was important to art. A glorious sunset isn't art, nor is the cutest kitten. We need to know that somebody created something for us to appreciate. I came to see that there was a feedback loop involved.
A look would cause a thought which gives a new look which gives a new thought . . . . repeat.
I think of that as a measure of art - with great art it's hard to break out of the loop. The point here is that the thought need not be a verbal one which is why it's so hard to _SAY_ exactly what it is that makes a picture great.
Jasper Johns spoke of a similar thing when he once was asked how he makes art. He said; first you do something, then you do something else and carry on like that until you are done.
When I walk on a busy sidewalk my verbal brain is kind of commenting on what I'm seeing but not really thinking. On the other hand a non-verbal circuit is thinking about collision avoidance.
But perhaps we should not be overbroad in our conception of 'thought'. Is solving a puzzle without activating verbal circuits really 'thinking'? Or maybe we shouldn't be over narrow.
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.