Date:  Wed, 6 Dec 1995 10:45:31 MST

From:  Tom Uharriet <UTOM[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ADMN.712.NEBO.EDU>

Subject: Re: non-linguistic thinking



> 1. I don't think you can say that "English is a system of abstract

reasoning."

> You might be able to say, perhaps contrastively, that culture furnishes its

> members a system of abstract reasoning. But it would be hard to claim

> that all of culture was in the language, even if you included all the

> rules of use for the language in the culture.

>

> 2. What can be said of the question "How do you think of abstracts, or

> think abstractly?" I take this as an epistemological problem, as I

> take this whole thread. My answer is I don't know. I became a behaviorist

> so that this answer would be part of the catechism, that is, it is a

> proper answer to a kind of question. Insofar as a given language may or

> may not furnish a vocabulary item for a particular abstraction does not

> recommend that I have that abstraction in my thinking or what I "code it"

> (a metaphor) in the form language may have [*that* I "code it"].

> I don't know. If you do know, how?

>

> Ron Rabin



Thank you, Ron. Your post (above) is the most interesting one I've

seen here in quite some time. A friend of mine was translating

Western ideas into Korean. When he came to a bit about feelings, as

opposed to logical thought, he was stumped. He told me they have no

word for it. Therefore, as far as he could discern, it was not a part

of their shared awareness. I believe that by having that word, our

ability to understand its abstract meaning is greater.







Tom Uharriet

utom[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]admn.712.nebo.edu