Topics Language

Question I recently learned a fact that I was previously unaware of. Helen Keller said, through the use of a form of sign language, that before she could us a 'type' of language she had no thought. This conception of no-thought was very intriguing to me. We are to believe that our language defines our very thoughts. So without language we wouldn't have thoughts to our self. I guess what I really want know is from a philosophical point of view are we able to think without our identity of language? Can thought be just bound to what language we speak?

Accepted:
November 7, 2005

Comments

I'm no expert on Helen Keller, but I don't think this comment has the kinds of consequences mentioned here, and I'm not sure it should be trusted.

Many human beings have the experience of thinking in language. Keller, obviously, wouldn't have had that ability before discovering language, and it may well be that her ability to use language greatly changed her experience of thinking. It may also, and probably did, greatly expand the range of thoughts of which she was capable. One can therefore understand what she might have meant by the remark reported.

But it's also clear from what little reading I've just done about Keller that, by her own account, she was, before she acquired language, capable of communicating, in primitive ways, with members of her family, and her biographer, Dorothy Herrmann, speaks of her "frustration" at being unable to communicate better. So it does not seem likely that she was utterly incapable of thought.