Topics Mind

Question Why is it that we can "think" about something such as breathing or blinking, but not about such things as, let's say, moving our fingers? (I have been thinking about this question for a long time now. Can someone please shed some light on this if they get what I am asking?)

Accepted:
November 1, 2005

Comments

I'm not sure I do quite get what you're after. Can't one think about moving one's fingers? Didn't you think about just that when you formulated your question? Is it that you believe that we don't have familiar concepts or words to describe the movements our fingers make, but we do to describe our breathing (e.g., exhaling, inhaling)? And absent such concepts/words, we can't form thoughts? But about the first: even if there is no single word in English for the movement my fingers make when I grasp my coffee mug, I can refer to that movement -- that's what I just did when I used the words "the movement my fingers make when I grasp my coffee mug". And if I can talk about that movement, then I can think about it too.