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Full Idea
A creature cannot have a thought unless it is an interpreter of the speech of another.
Gist of Idea
A creature doesn't think unless it interprets another's speech
Source
Donald Davidson (Thought and Talk [1975], p.9)
Book Ref
'Mind and Language', ed/tr. Guttenplan,Samuel [OUP 1977], p.9
A Reaction
His use of the word 'creature' shows that he is perfectly aware of the issue of whether animals think, and he is, presumably, denying it. At first glance this sounds silly, but maybe animals don't really 'think', in our sense of the word.
| 6712 | For Locke, abstract ideas are our main superiority of understanding over animals [Locke, by Berkeley] |
| 23656 | The structure of languages reveals a uniformity in basic human opinions [Reid] |
| 6393 | A creature doesn't think unless it interprets another's speech [Davidson] |
| 18538 | Non-conscious thought may be unlike conscious thought [Heil] |
| 18537 | Linguistic thought is just as imagistic as non-linguistic thought [Heil] |
| 17768 | Perception reveals what animals think, but humans can disengage thought from perception [Bayne] |
| 17769 | Some people centre space on themselves; others centre space on the earth [Bayne] |