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    Natural Language More Proof?: As Language of Thought

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    Brent Silby
    This document provides evidence that natural language, not a language of thought called mentalese, structures human thinking. Experimental evidence shows animal and pre-linguistic infant thoughts are not productive and systematic like adult human thought. Children first develop systematic thought when acquiring object permanence and a symbolic system around ages 2, coinciding with natural language development. Connectionist models also show that artificial networks only develop systematic, productive thought after being trained on a natural language. Therefore, natural language acquisition allows the human mind to think in a new, systematic way unlike other species.

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    Natural Language More Proof?: As Language of Thought

    Uploaded by

    Brent Silby
    52 views11 pages
    This document provides evidence that natural language, not a language of thought called mentalese, structures human thinking. Experimental evidence shows animal and pre-linguistic infant thoughts are not productive and systematic like adult human thought. Children first develop systematic thought when acquiring object permanence and a symbolic system around ages 2, coinciding with natural language development. Connectionist models also show that artificial networks only develop systematic, productive thought after being trained on a natural language. Therefore, natural language acquisition allows the human mind to think in a new, systematic way unlike other species.

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    Powerpoint used in Language of Thought course

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    More Proof

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    This document provides evidence that natural language, not a language of thought called mentalese, structures human thinking. Experimental evidence shows animal and pre-linguistic infant thoughts are not productive and systematic like adult human thought. Children first develop systematic thought when acquiring object permanence and a symbolic system around ages 2, coinciding with natural language development. Connectionist models also show that artificial networks only develop systematic, productive thought after being trained on a natural language. Therefore, natural language acquisition allows the human mind to think in a new, systematic way unlike other species.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPSX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppsx, pdf, or txt
    52 views11 pages

    Natural Language More Proof?: As Language of Thought

    Uploaded by

    Brent Silby
    This document provides evidence that natural language, not a language of thought called mentalese, structures human thinking. Experimental evidence shows animal and pre-linguistic infant thoughts are not productive and systematic like adult human thought. Children first develop systematic thought when acquiring object permanence and a symbolic system around ages 2, coinciding with natural language development. Connectionist models also show that artificial networks only develop systematic, productive thought after being trained on a natural language. Therefore, natural language acquisition allows the human mind to think in a new, systematic way unlike other species.

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    Download as PPSX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppsx, pdf, or txt
    of 11

    Natural Language

    as Language of Thought
    More Proof?

    BRENT SILBY
    Unlimited (UPT)
    Evidence for Natural Language as Language of Thought

    The nature of thought requires language

    Remember in the first week we talked about our thoughts as


    being productive and systematic

    Systematic means that if I can understand the sentence


    a loves b

    then I’ll be able to understand

    b loves a
    Evidence for Natural Language as Language of Thought

    Fodor thinks this requires mentalese because language is


    required to form productive, systematic thoughts

    Yes, language is required, but it is not mentalese.


    Why?

    Because our thoughts only become productive and systematic


    after we acquire a natural language

    If Fodor was right, we would see productive, systematic


    thoughts in non-linguistic humans and animals
    Evidence for Natural Language as Language of Thought

    Experimental evidence shows that animal and pre-linguistic


    infant thoughts are not productive and systematic

    This is not to say that they do not think—it is simply to say that
    their thoughts are different

    Language provides a new way of thinking once people reach


    a certain stage in development
    Evidence for Natural Language as Language of Thought

    This stage seems to coincide with children acquiring a symbolic


    system of representation

    The first stage of development


    Sensory Motor Stage – birth to 2 years
    Simple motor reflexes. Thoughts limited to co-ordination of sensory
    information with simple body movements

    The child eventually makes the first big cognitive jump in acquiring
    “object permanence”

    This is the beginning of symbolic thought – concepts can be


    held in mind and represented by specific words
    Evidence for Natural Language as Language of Thought

    The lack of symbolic representation in infants gives support to


    the idea that their thought processes lack the productive and
    systematic features of a fully developed mind

    Does this show that assimilation of a natural language is required


    for human thoughts to be structured in that way?

    Mentalese supporters could claim that mentalese doesn’t come


    on-line until that stage of development.

    Maybe object permanence stage is reached because mentalese


    systems have fired up.
    Evidence for Natural Language as Language of Thought

    Remember, we should favor economy and simplicity in our


    explanation, so lets not go down the mentalese line if
    natural language can explain thought.
    Evidence for Natural Language as Language of Thought

    Further evidence comes from connectionist models of language

    An artificial neural network that has been designed to acquire


    language, but has no built in linguistic abilities has none of
    the systematic, productive features of language.

    But, it has been observed that as such a network acquires


    language through training, these properties emerge.
    (Garfield 1997: pg 429; see also Clark 1993 and Dennett 1991b)

    Evidence from infant development leads us to think the same is


    true of the brain
    Evidence for Natural Language as Language of Thought

    Natural language is an external technology that is productive


    and systematic

    After the mind acquires the concept of object permanence, it is


    ready to assimilate natural language

    It is at this time that the brain starts to produce thoughts that are
    productive and systematic
    In the next exciting episode…

    The Last Stand! The Fight for Mentalese

    I will consider arguments that deny the role natural language


    plays in thinking.
    Powerpoint by BRENT SILBY

    Produced at UPT
    Christchurch, New Zealand
    www.unlimited.school.nz

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