Abstract
Some philosophers believe that language is an essential prerequisite for thinking. You cannot think if you don’t know a language, they say. Others point out that animals don’t have a language but nevertheless have high levels of cognition and have significant problem-solving skills. It is indeed true that, for example, beavers don’t use a human language and can nevertheless build their lodges as we call the homes that they skillfully build. They do this not individually but in working groups with division of labor. This requires communication between the members of the colony.
It is also true that many animals, like elephants, have extremely good memories and have extraordinary senses similar to senses of sniffer dogs. All animals use their skills to sail through life safely and they manage their daily problems together with other members in a herd or in a flock. We have to admit that many animals are in various respects smarter than humans. It is also true that humans who have impairments in language - we call this aphasia – have usually full cognitive skills and are able to solve mathematical and other problems. The use of these skills requires ‘thinking’ and planning. We therefore have to acknowledge that we don’t need a language to think.
We find three common elements in any language. It is firstly a message or a meaning. There is secondly someone who sends the message either intentionally or unintentionally. There is then a receiver of the message who understands or misinterprets the content of the message. Living beings use a variety of different methods to communicate. They use sounds, movements and other ways by which they transmit information, feelings and warnings to others. Some researchers claim that even plants can communicate but if plants tell something, they certainly don’t do it intentionally. In a wide definition of ‘language’ we can include all the different methods of transmitting meanings and can include even unintentional transmissions of meanings. We can even include in the definition of ‘language’ the communications inside the body of a living being. The brain, the organs and cells exchange constantly without our conscious input all kinds of information for the orderly operation of the body. This information travels through the nerve system in form of electric impulses. The nerve system is like a data highway. Information within the body also travels with the blood in form of chemicals and hormones. It is also possible that information travels wireless - by magnetism for example - inside the body similar to certain information that travels through magnetism or vibrations between human beings and between animals. Organs, cells and brain are able to process the information that comes through the nerve system and through the blood. They possess biological intelligence which is different from the intelligence that we use consciously for oral or written communications. All cells and organs have their own brains, so to speak. They are even able to make group decisions with other cells and organs. The Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Germany is an example of a research institute that specializes in the exciting field of biological intelligence.
In a narrow definition of language, some people want to include only the methods that humans use to communicate between themselves. This definition is not as narrow as it sounds because human beings – like animals – use a myriad of different methods by which they try to get a message across to another human being or by which they involuntarily communicate with others. Gestures, looks and intonations that accompany the words are as important as the contexts, in which we use language. The accompanying gestures can be intentional to emphasize a certain meaning. They can, for example, intonate a word or a sentence to sound threatening. Accompanying unintentional gestures can reveal to the listener feelings and thoughts that the speaker did not really want to disclose. Let’s assume that a visitor from another planet comes on a research mission to our planet. He is able to hear all high-pitched and low-pitched sounds that animals produce but we humans cannot hear. If our visitor compares the sounds that human beings and, for example, elephants produce, he will notice that there are differences. He might probably notice that the sounds that human beings produce, are more erudite. But he will conclude that most living beings that he has observed and heard, use all more or less clever languages that he classifies as belonging to the same language family. From a distance many dissimilar things can look and sound similar. However, our visitor from the other planet will highlight in his mission report that human beings are the only living beings that regularly write down what they say. He will conclude in his report that the written language is the only thing that distinguishes humans from animals. He might take home some books for analysis and might detect with the help of artificial intelligence that the books contain interesting ideas and concepts that exist independently from their authors that he has left behind on our planet.
This essay primarily deals with the human language that we can use to develop thoughts, which could not exist without language. I cover in this essay only briefly the language of animals and focus much more on the written and spoken human language. I will express my belief that the oral and written language that most people use in daily life is far from being logical and rational. People use language often not to communicate intelligent meanings but to convey feelings and emotions. And people often do not want to hear logical and rational arguments but want to hear sounds and ideas that satisfy their feelings and instincts. Music does the same. Human languages constantly change their meanings depending on historical and cultural contexts. It is next to impossible to understand a language without knowing its cultural and historical context.