As I reflect back on our many class discussions throughout the course, one conversation in particular comes to mind. Those in the Wednesday night class know this to be the “Stoner Conversation” we held regarding if you can think in the absence of language. As I was babysitting my 2 and a half year old, and 8 month old nephews over the weekend, this conversation came to mind. I can see my 2 and a half month old acting as a sponge, every word he learns he finds some way to use it, even though he does not know what it means. However, you can see he is absolutely thinking about it.
I found some information from professor Peter Carruthers at the University of Maryland that sheds some light on this in a different way than what we had discussed in class:
“There is a spectrum of opinions on the role of language in cognition. At one extreme, philosophers like Michael Dummett have argued that thought is impossible in the absence of language; and social scientists influenced by Benjamin Whorf have believed that the natural languages that people grow up speaking will have a profound influence on the character of their thoughts. At the other extreme, philosophers like Jerry Fodor, together with most cognitive scientists, have believed that language is but an input/output device for cognition, playing no significant role in thought itself. Peter Carruthers has steered a path in between these two extremes. In his 1996 book,[1] he allowed that much thought can and does occur in the absence of language, while arguing for a constitutive role for language in conscious thinking, conducted in “inner speech“. In his 2006 book,[2] this position is broadened and deepened. Following Antonio Damasio, he argues that mental rehearsals of action issue in imagery that plays a profound role in human practical reasoning, with inner speech now being seen as a subset of action rehearsal. Carruthers now argues that the serial use of these rehearsals can issue in a whole new level of thinking and reasoning, serving to realize the “dual systems” that psychologists like Daniel Kahneman believe to be involved in human reasoning processes.”
Looking at my nephews, I am aware that in one case, he has no language, while in the the other case his language is limited. But, I can see that they know images, and in some sense this type of action rehearsal that Carruthers describes, meaning the two and a half year old knows how to do certain things, or perform certain acts in the absence of language. There is thought there, just no language. I would be interested if anybody else had opinions regarding their own experiences with children in this sense.