Thinking without language?

[Larisa Migachyov]

John Turnbull wrote:
>  In article <7fvh6r751r.fsf at faith.csis.hku.hk>,
>  Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~} <sdlee at faith.csis.hku.hk> wrote:
>  
>  >I do have the "Oh no!   I missed that note!"  thought when playing the
>  >piano, but that thought comes  in a completely NON-VERBAL way.  Again,
>  >that though  flashings in my  mind in a language-independent  way, and
>  >there is too little  time for me to put the thought  into words of any
>  >language I'm fluent in.
>  
>  Why would it take time to put into words.  If you think the thought the
>  words are there.  They may not be top-most to your attention.  It is a
>  mere shift in mental focus to have the words present.  How sure are you
>  the words are not there?

I don't know why it's so hard to believe that an expression of anguish can
have no words attached to it.  When you trip, do you think "Oh no! I
tripped!" in precisely these words?

-- 
Larisa Migachyov                            
Quaternion Press Publishing House
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