Mind and Language

In the end, consciousness might be about thinking and forming meaning (concepts). So, do we think in language? First of all, we need to understand what exactly language is, but that’s not an easy question. Narrowly speaking, language refers to natural language as studied in linguistics, but there may be no reason to limit the concept of language to natural language alone. Broadly speaking, a systematic set of rules used to express meaning using signals could also be considered language. A scientific approach to this subject focuses not on What is language? but rather on What is language for? (I’m not sure if this is related to the Linguistic Category Model, but I heard there’s already a model that implements a lexicon using category theory… It might even be possible to link this to CQM.) Seen from this perspective, sensory information gathered through reading and writing, speech production, and auditory perception might just be a part of countless environmental factors for assuming the most suitable form of communication rules for a given environment. For instance, let’s assume that extraterrestrial beings evolved with a bat-like structure exist in the universe. Their method of acquiring sensory information would certainly differ from that of humans. This is because their language structure would have evolved from a bat’s echolocation mechanism, rather than the vestibular system of primates. However, as mentioned earlier, it is almost impossible for humans to infer the mind of a bat. Even if there were intelligent extraterrestrial life forms, unless they were very similar in physical structure to humans, there would be no linguistic way for humans to communicate with them. If this assumption holds, it would be the same for strong artificial intelligence as well. There is no doubt that language is a crucial factor in expressing and conveying meaning, and that it works surprisingly well as a medium for communication. However, it doesn’t seem that humans necessarily think in language (criticism of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis). The probability is high that before language, one first brings to mind the meaning that language refers to. Language is rather a means for organizing or externally expressing meaning, but not meaning itself. Hence, ToC, from this perspective, should be approached conceptually rather than linguistically. This naturally leads to the question of what pure thinking might be. What form does a concept take, if anything at all?