How do animals have thoughts?

[gaijintendo]

[QUOTE 4929128, member: 45"]So is love. [/QUOTE]
How do you say "please" in love?
Because if love is gesture based... you might be confusing it with mime.

It's easy to confuse love and mime... I fell in mime once... but I don't like to talk about it.

 

[Yellow Fang]

When Sadi Carnot was thinking about maximum efficiency of heat engines, or when Einstein was thinking his thought experiments, I doubt they were using language. I've heard Maths called a language, but I don't think it is.

 

[slowmotion]

If animals don't think, how can they display intelligence?

 

[accountantpete]

 

[gaijintendo]

If animals don't think, how can they display intelligence?

They do sudoku on the bus.

 

[stephec]

Here you go, food for thought (sorry, couldn't help myself ):

http://mentalfloss.com/article/50684/it-possible-think-without-language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:The_thought_without_language
http://www.debate.org/opinions/can-we-think-without-a-language
... etc, etc.

Don't encourage him.

 

[gavroche]

Many animals talk to each other. Dolphins, whales, elephants, wolves and so on do it. They just don't use language as we know it but sound intonation. It is a good question though .

 

[Reynard]

When we think of language, we think of vocalisation, but certainly cats use body language to communicate with each other along with a comparatively limited range of sounds. As any cat slave will tell you, you learn to read it. I understand what my cats want, and they can pick up on what I want too, sometimes even before I know it. What is quite interesting though, is that while cat-to-cat communication is consistent, cat-to-human and human-to-cat varies with each and every household.

For instance, my two girls know that "shoo" means "you are in my way and I'll step on you if you persist in sitting there". When they hear "shoo", they'll up sticks. However, when I'm at a friend's place, her cats haven't the foggiest what "shoo" means. Instead, their equivalent to "you are in my way etc" is "move".

Besides, Lexi is convinced that I'm a godawful cat, given the number of gifts she brings me...

 

[gavroche]

Is Accy back from the pub yet?

 

[rich p]

I think Accy has unknowingly touched on a subject that the initial sneerers are struggling with.
He's a hidden genius...albeit well-hidden
BTW, I'm just back from the boozer even if he's in a lock-in

 

[Yellow Fang]

What is a language? A method of communication and expressing ideas.

What is maths?

I think it's more a tool. If you are doing long division, you using it to get a result. You're not really thinking in words when doing maths, and if you are trying to prompt yourself with words, like 'change the side, change the sign', then you're saying them in English. You can say maths is a method of communication and expressing ideas, but so is a technical drawing and that's not language.

 

[rich p]

What is a language? A method of communication and expressing ideas.

What is maths?

It's not a method of communication.

 

[smutchin]

It's not a method of communication.

It is. It communicates facts about the world. Maths is the purest form of language, distilled to abstraction.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Is Accy back from the pub yet?

I'm back. I asked this question while down there. I might've well asked my dog,considering the responses.

 

[marinyork]

I think it's more a tool. If you are doing long division, you using it to get a result. You're not really thinking in words when doing maths, and if you are trying to prompt yourself with words, like 'change the side, change the sign', then you're saying them in English. You can say maths is a method of communication and expressing ideas, but so is a technical drawing and that's not language.

You might have stumbled on a semiotics discussion there, accidentally.