Last
night, I got to
thinking. Then I realized, "Hey,
wait a minute. I'm thinking in
English," and
that got me to thinking.
Now, I've never
experienced it myself, but I'd assume that, for a
person whose
native language is a
language other than English,
thoughts don't occur in English (
correct me
if I'm
wrong).
What, then, for a person who has
never been
exposed to any sort of
verbal language? How would his/her thoughts be
arranged
individually, let alone
combined/
compared/etc. with each other? And how does this
system compare to
linguistic thought? Is one dramatically more
productive than the other? Can
Enlightenment only be attained through this non-linguistic form of thought? Is it still
possible for me to have thoughts without language, and be
consciously
aware of them, even with English as
internal to me as it has
become? If so, how? Is there anything besides language which can have such an effect (that is, the effect of causing someone to switch from using true(?) thought to using some other form of thought, i.e. linguistic thought) on thought?
Your thoughts are welcomed.
I did a quick search, and there are a few web pages about this... My only reservation to posting a 'researched' version of this node is that this is a philosophical subject and could likely yield good discussions...