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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.
| 18285 | All translation loses some content (but language does not create reality) [Carnap] |
| 23489 | We translate by means of proposition constituents, not by whole propositions [Wittgenstein] |
| 19045 | Translation is too flimsy a notion to support theories of cultural incommensurability [Quine] |
| 12591 | Mastery of a language requires thinking, and not just communication [Harman] |
| 4706 | Early Quine says all beliefs could be otherwise, but later he said we would assume mistranslation [O'Grady] |
| 17991 | Holism says language can't be translated; the expressibility hypothesis says everything can [Hofweber] |