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Single Idea 12591

[filed under theme 19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / a. Translation ]

Full Idea

If one cannot think in a language, one has not yet mastered it. A symbol system used only for communication, like Morse code, is not a language.

Gist of Idea

Mastery of a language requires thinking, and not just communication

Source

Gilbert Harman ((Nonsolipsistic) Conceptual Role Semantics [1987], 12.1.2)

Book Ref

Harman,Gilbert: 'Reasoning Meaning and Mind' [OUP 1999], p.208

A Reaction

This invites the question of someone who has mastered thinking, but has no idea how to communicate. No doubt we might construct a machine with something like that ability. I think it might support Harman's claim.

The 16 ideas from '(Nonsolipsistic) Conceptual Role Semantics'

12588 Meaning from use of thoughts, constructed from concepts, which have a role relating to reality [Harman]
12589 Some regard conceptual role semantics as an entirely internal matter [Harman]
12590 Take meaning to be use in calculation with concepts, rather than in communication [Harman]
12591 Mastery of a language requires thinking, and not just communication [Harman]
12592 Concepts in thought have content, but not meaning, which requires communication [Harman]
12593 The use theory attaches meanings to words, not to sentences [Harman]
12594 If one proposition negates the other, which is the negative one? [Harman]
12596 Reasoning aims at increasing explanatory coherence [Harman]
12595 We have a theory of logic (implication and inconsistency), but not of inference or reasoning [Harman]
12597 I might accept P and Q as likely, but reject P-and-Q as unlikely [Harman]
12598 Reality is the overlap of true complete theories [Harman]
12599 Reason conservatively: stick to your beliefs, and prefer reasoning that preserves most of them [Harman]
12601 The way things look is a relational matter, not an intrinsic matter [Harman]
12600 The content of thought is relations, between mental states, things in the world, and contexts [Harman]
12602 There is no natural border between inner and outer [Harman]
12603 We can only describe mental attitudes in relation to the external world [Harman]