How do animals have thoughts?

[slowmotion]

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.

These days, I have to think blooming hard when doing long division. I try it every few months as a tripwire for the onset of dementia.

 

[marinyork]

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

Good, this will make sense now


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_QylCztffk

 

[Accy cyclist]

Good, this will make sense now


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_QylCztffk

I'm watching this now..

 

[Yellow Fang]

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

Is that good or bad?

 

[Roadhump]

Watching my dog sleep tonight a thought entered my head. If they (dogs) can't speak a language how do they think? Surely to have thoughts you have to be able to say words in your head. If you can't speak a language then surely you can't think? Also,if a human was brought up without human contact,by animals, surely that human wouldn't be able to think? This is as serious question by the way.

Blimey, it's obvious, they think in barks.

 

[screenman]

There is a car stopped in front of me, that means I need to brake quickly, bang. Damn I wish I could talk faster.

Doctor, that medication you gave me has made me go deaf, why is that, I cannot hear the voices in my head anymore

 

[gbb]

I've often thought about how dogs in particular...think. it's not in words of course it's emotion...smells, sights etc will trigger waves of emotion...aggression, excitement, potential of food, play etc etc. The range of emotions may be quite wide...,mine for instance displays quite obvious signs of being fed up if I walk downstairs first thing in the morning in my dressing gown...he Instantly knows he's not going to get a walk and won't even look at me...mardy get .
Emotion...it must be.

 

[rich p]

It is. As @smutchin says:

I disagree with you and Smutch then!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I disagree with you and Smutch then!

You must've put 80085 into a calculator rich, how is that not maths communicating?

 

[rich p]

You must've put 80085 into a calculator rich, how is that not maths communicating?

You're all tits?

 

[growingvegetables]

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 ....

... and possibly struggling with Maths as a language? You'd be at roughly the equvalent of Basic Conversational Mandarin? (I speak as one who would find Mandarin considerably easier .)

You can say maths is a method of communication and expressing ideas, but so is a technical drawing and that's not language.

Hmm. So ... what is language? It's more than alphabet, words, phrases and sentences ... we're easy (I guess) with stretching the idea of language, to include Sign Language.

And music notation - a language? We "read" music.

Maps - we "read" maps?

All sorts of ways of using symbols to convey a range of thoughts and ideas. Technical drawing ... why not?

 

[marinyork]

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

Does it? How do you know it isn't the world that 'communicates' facts about Maths?

 

[marinyork]

Is that good or bad?

Good. Seem to be a lot of people here having it on the tip of their tongue.

 

[MacB]

I went down this rabbithole a few years ago, started innocently by watching some Chomsky videos and reading some books, on politics and economics. Enjoyed his views so thought I'd see what his linguistic speciality was all about...way out of my depth. If I really concentrated I could grasp individual points but retaining them, or the overall concepts, felt like trying to hold onto a dream when you first wake up. I didn't even finish the book it was so far beyond me.

About all I really gleaned is he has ideas about language appearing as an inbuilt ability in the brain at some point in our evolutionary past. He believes that without that evolutionary leap we'd be unaware/instinctive/lacking in the way animals are. But the linguists and long brains can't agree on any of this and I think Chomsky is an outlier in his language/hardware belief.

 

[MacB]

I disagree with you and Smutch then!

and you're entitled to your opinion even when you're as wrong as any Hobbit has ever been.