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From: James King <James.King@daytonoh.ncr.com>
Subject: Re: Thought Question (and our journey away from consciousness)
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Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 14:35:42 GMT
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After reading this thread discussing "thought" and "consciousness" and "memory"
and so on ... I go back to some "thinking" I did a few years ago.

In an earlier posting someone mentioned that we recognized our need (desire) for 

love as a baby and only later learned the word "love".  Herein may rest the 
heart of the 
problem, or what I might call our individual loss of consciousness and self
awareness.  Many describe language, words, the ability to express oneself 
through spoken and written methods as the key to determining a group's level of 
civilization
and intelligence.

Although I will surely agree that language, words, have contributed to 
humankind's ability to reach the stars, create literary masterpieces, build 
great cities, and to bring people 
together geographically(!!), have these words placed a limit to our abilities 
for self
expression, communication, inner realization, and the ability to "feel" as 
strongly as we might otherwise?

Do humans try to place themselves within the context of a finite set of words 
and
the expressive capabilities of a given language?  When we explain how we feel 
about
someone do we tend to say it with words which may be insufficient?

Maybe our ability to communicate and express ourselves is a combination of 
language, gestures, pheremones (sp?), facial features, actions, emotions, and 
awareness of other's emotions or whatever?  Maybe I am placing too much weight 
on words and language in how we perceive ourselves.

When I think of a warm summer day do I think of a "warm" "summer" and "day" and 
do I represent that memory as a set of words - or am I capable of not creating a 
mental query and simply re-living a fine July day along the shore of Lake 
Ontario?  When I look across my desk (somewhere under the stacks) do I mentally 
say the words "red" and "blue" when I glance at the empty Pepsi can?  Or am I 
aware of this email I am writing and thus causing myself to convert the 
images/scenes I gather into words?

Long enough ... the point is does language actually, or ultimately, limit our 
thinking and do we insulate ourselves from awareness through a veil of syntax 
and lexicon?

Jim King
AT&T GIS

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