Is Language Sufficient to express Human Thought, or is there Thought beyond Language

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Is Language Sufficient to express Human Thought, or is there Thought beyond Language

            Wittgenstein published a short book in1930, entitled Philosophical Investigations. In this book he looks at language as a series of ‘language games’.  These consist of guessing riddles, giving orders, cursing, greeting praying etc.  Wittgenstein argues that one can use these forms of language provided that a set of predetermined rules is used.  In this he explains the rules behind all human forms of language.  However, this caused me to ask the question, what role does language play in one’s thinking.  Do we in fact use these ‘language games’ in our thinking also, and do we therefore have ‘thought games’ to describe our thought patterns, or do we simply translate thought into language so naturally that we are unconscious of the process.  These are the issues I will attempt to examine in this essay.

            As a child, we form the basis of our language through linking words to objects. We therefore realise through others calling a plant a plant or a spade a spade, that a spade is in fact called a spade.  In this way, we link a picture of an object, action, feeling etc. to a word to describe the thing in question.  This results in a mental link between the picture and the word.  However, if we can only think in language, how would a child with no language be able to think?  If we allowed the child to grow up in a language–less world, would he be unable to think, or would his thoughts be simpler or more complex.  I believe that we can’t take the example of a baby too far as much of the things done by a baby are reflex and therefore do not involve thought.  However, the issue of whether a person living without communication due to being deprived of language surrounding it when growing up is an interesting one.  Surely a person without language can’t be considered to have less complex thought than one who does. It could even be said that his thought, although unintelligible to others may be more complex as it is not inhibited by the limits of language.

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            The question that one must now ask is if this man cannot think in language, then what form would his thoughts take.  This question may have three different solutions, either he thinks in pictures and feelings which involve no language, or he will think in thoughts, common to all and not subject to the limits of language, or he will invent a language that only he understands in order to create the simplification and order necessary for the human brain to think.

            I will now look at the first option, he thinks in pictures and feelings.  This will ...

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