One dividing thing apparant to me when analising my own mind is this: there seems to be 2 different types of thoughts: ones that are REAL thoughts that require no internal definition and those that are WORDS!
The other day i suddenly realised that i had about a million sentences, words, song lyrics whiring around in my mind Like in a film when the character hears all different people saying things. Now I have to admit- i smoke rather alot of weed and that may have its part to play. But even in the days when i wasnt mentally retarded i can remember Sometimes you think a sentence in your head- or even say it out loud alone. Other times you decide to go and make a cup of tea: You dont need to think it in words you just instantly do it. Thinking conciously and thinking unconciously…Is that what it is? Conciouse thought= words and unconciouse thought= action. Maybe we spend so much of our lives communicating verbally that when we are finally alone we still carry on as if we are speaking to ourselves. Its like 2 english guys employing an english translator to speak to one another. My question is this:
first of all, I miss more issues dealing with the semantics, pragamatics and cognitive linguistics here on this site.
I think we basically think in words, not strictly in syntactically perfect sentences but there is always a certain level of representative symbols in our brain precesses. the fact that in some cases you dont perceive it as thinking in words /e.g. goint to make tea/, it might be supressed or habitualised so that we dont feel it any more, its become so automatical that it has disappeared but I think as for the new ideas and new clusters of experience, the are always, in conscius state processed in words. but I cant argue much with this since there are also deaf-blind people whose concepts must be created upon touch, and yet they can speak and have words. I dont know… I woould wish to hear from all members of ILP as far as its possible.
It is easier to think in words than numbers. Or what else is the alternative?
The left hemisphere can think in words, and the right hemisphere can think in pictures, symbols and signs. All night long the brains thinks in non-verbal ways. Dreams occupy our attention with picture-thoughts.
Also for planning we can use creative visualization, the process of deliberately thinking in pictures and images. This kind of thinking is often taught for peak performance in athletics and other competitive fields.
You can’t think in words at all. When we think, it takes the form of imagery right away. That’s the reason why we see dreams because the mind cannot stop thinking or we would wake up not knowing who we are anymore. And that is also the reason why we cannot stop thinking in the day because we would forget who we are the next instant otherwise. Back to dreams, so the dream keeps us connected to our thoughts, but we don’t always remember these dreams although we must dream all the time nonetheless. It’s possible that in the REM stage we dream more passionately. Guys! I have a feeling that some day I’m going to go and say the opposite of what Socrates said, “I know nothing.” I’m not kidding!
We could maybe characterise our thoughts into a form that can be distinguised in language, so as to interperate these thoughts and express them to others.
We probably do this automatically, because without language, what more can we do but to watch the pictures go by in our minds without a thing to say, maybe remembering the images and their significance as to how they affect us, but with no real way to analyze beyond that.
