more from E.J. Lowe

Single Idea 7715

[catalogued under 18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 4. Language of Thought]

Full Idea

'Mentalese' would be neither conventional nor a means of public communication so that even to call it a language is seriously misleading.

Gist of Idea

Mentalese isn't a language, because it isn't conventional, or a means of public communication

Source

E.J. Lowe (Locke on Human Understanding [1995], Ch.7)

Book Reference

Lowe,E.J.: 'Locke on Human Understanding' [Routledge 2004], p.146


A Reaction

It is, however, supposed to contain symbolic representations which are then used as tokens for computation, so it seems close to a language, if (for example) symbolic logic or mathematics were accepted as languages. But who understands it?