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Single Idea 3970

[filed under theme 19. Language / F. Communication / 4. Private Language ]

Full Idea

We would have no fully-fledge thoughts if we were not in communication with others.

Gist of Idea

Thought is only fully developed if we communicate with others

Source

Donald Davidson (Davidson on himself [1994], p.233)

Book Ref

'A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind', ed/tr. Guttenplan,Samuel [Blackwell 1995], p.233

A Reaction

This seems a plausible empirical observation, though I would doubt any a priori proof of it. If animals could speak, they would become intellectuals?

The 21 ideas with the same theme [possibility of a solitary person having language]:

15991 Since words are just conventional, we can represent our own ideas with any words we please [Locke]
19585 Every person has his own language [Novalis]
8478 Dewey argued long before Wittgenstein that there could not seriously be a private language [Dewey, by Orenstein]
6093 The names in a logically perfect language would be private, and could not be shared [Russell]
4136 To imagine a language means to imagine a form of life [Wittgenstein]
6166 Was Wittgenstein's problem between individual and community, or between occasions for an individual? [Rowlands on Wittgenstein]
7875 If a brilliant child invented a name for a private sensation, it couldn't communicate it [Wittgenstein]
4146 We cannot doublecheck mental images for correctness (or confirm news with many copies of the paper) [Wittgenstein]
4147 If we only named pain by our own case, it would be like naming beetles by looking in a private box [Wittgenstein]
5659 If the reference is private, that is incompatible with the sense being public [Wittgenstein, by Scruton]
4152 Getting from perceptions to words cannot be a private matter; the rules need an institution of use [Wittgenstein]
23497 Solipsism is correct, but can only be shown, not said, by the limits of my personal language [Wittgenstein]
5817 Language is more like a cooperative steamship than an individual hammer [Putnam]
6279 A private language could work with reference and beliefs, and wouldn't need meaning [Putnam]
3970 Thought is only fully developed if we communicate with others [Davidson]
8870 Content of thought is established through communication, so knowledge needs other minds [Davidson]
11075 The sceptical rule-following paradox is the basis of the private language argument [Kripke, by Hanna]
8254 Forming concepts by abstraction from the Given is private definition, which the Private Lang. Arg. attacks [McDowell]
2484 The theory of the content of thought as 'Mentalese' explains why the Private Language Argument doesn't work [Fodor]
3516 The Private Language argument only means people may misjudge their experiences [Papineau]
3882 Wittgenstein makes it impossible to build foundations from something that is totally private [Scruton]